The Ultimate Killing Machine
by KE12
Summary: What would happen if the ultimate killing machines of the Star Trek universe, the Borg, met the 'pinnacle of evolution' from the Mass Effect Saga? Inside is my take on what would happen if the two titans of death ever met on the battlefield (Or space in this instance). Meanwhile the Enterprise finds its self lost in unknown space...
1. Chapter 1

**So, I got watching some TV a good few weeks back and the Borg made an appearance, anyway I got wondering, what would happen if the ultimate killing machines of the Star Trek universe, the Borg, met the 'pinnacle of evolution' from the Mass Effect Sega? Below is my take on what would happen if the two titans of death ever met on the battlefield (Or space in this instance).**

**For which generation of Borg makes an appearance think Enterprise: The Next Generation.**

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or universes appearing in this story!**

/.../

"What is it?" Asked Shepard as he peered out of the Normandy SR-2's primary cockpit window and onto a cube looking object far in the distance.

Jeff shrugged, he hadn't seen anything like it. "I don't know but it's probably something else to add onto the list of things in this galaxy that wants to either commit mass genocide, kill you, or just kill things for no good reason."

"Hmm. EDI, put a zoomed image on my monitor will you?" EDI nodded her mechanical head and soon after an image appeared on Shepard's monitor.

As he looked at the image Shepard rubbed his chin in thought, the giant cube had many intricate patterns on the outside, whatever it was it was man made. "I have no idea what to make of it either. EDI, inform Liara I want her here."

It took the Asari a few moments to appear. "Yes Shepard?"

"My monitor, don't suppose your network knows anything about it?"

Liara leaned forward to get a closer look at the image, she neither had seen anything like it. "I'm sorry, but this is the first time I have seen something like that."

Shepard sighed, he didn't like this one small bit. "EDI, have the scanners detected anything else that we should know about this thing."

EDI shook her head again. "At this range my sensors can't penetrate the outer layer of the cube."

Shepard scowled slightly. "Okay, Jeff take us to 100,000 kilometres, but keep vigilant." Jeff stayed silent as his fingers worked, only the increasing size of the cube out of the cockpit window showed he was doing as asked. "That thing puts a Quarian life ship to shame for size."

"Correct, its dimensions are 3 kilometres by 3 kilometres."

Jeff give an impressed whistle. "Dam."

As the cube continued to get bigger and bigger Liara felt slightly out of place, she would be far more useful to Shepard on her network right now. "Shepard, I'll be down in my room looking for any reports I may have missed regarding this thing."

Shepard give a nod to signify he heard before turning to EDI. "Any luck with the sensors?" EDI didn't initially respond, she looked lost in her own world and this only worried Shepard. "EDI?"

After a few more seconds the AI responded. "Shepard, I have detected odd electrical signatures that are interfering with out sh..." EDI was interrupted as a small flashing light and buzzing sound originated from a terminal on the cockpit. "... Shields." After Shepard failed to initially respond she continued "I believe that is for you Shepard, or do you wish for me to answer?."

Shepard continued to stare at the communication terminal for a short time. "EDI we are cloaked right now right?"

"Yes Shepard."

"Jeff, back us off slowly." After speaking Shepard leaned over and activated the comm link. "This is..."

A voice, or from the sounds of things multiple voices spoke over Shepard. "We are the Borg, lower your shield and surrender your ship, we will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us, resistance is futile." After the voices finished speaking the link was terminated.

"So, by slowly backing off I take it you mean maximum velocity." Jeff broke the silence that quickly formed in the cockpit as EDI and Shepard went over what was just said in their heads.

"Shepard, we have another problem." EDI's voice sounded like it usually did when her scans gained the attention of the Reapers.

"And that cube thing is staying up with us." Jeff quickly added as his fingers began to fly around the controls in front of him.

"Jeff, the Reapers will beat us to the Relay." Informed EDI

"Shit. Jeff FTL to the next system, see if that thing can keep up then." Shepard spoke since the first time he was hailed by the the Borg cube. After Joker jumped to FTL Shepard give it a second before speaking again. "Well?"

"It is still on our tail Shepard, I have also detected an increase of interference in my shields and I believe the interference is originating from the cube."

Sheppard tapped his feet in thought, not even the Reapers could keep up once they had jumped to faster than light speeds. "Could the interference be its weapons?"

EDI shook her head. "I don't believe so."

"One could wish. Joker, turn us around and head towards the Reapers."

"What?!" Both EDI and Joker questioned.

"That thing isn't Reaper and if something that size can produce the energy to hit FTL then I hate to think what its weapons are like, so I'm hoping the Reapers think that thing is a more attractive target and vice versa."

"Has anyone ever told you your crazy?" Mused Jeff as he did as requested.

Shepard heard Jeff and smiled. "Yes."

Jeff remained silent till he was about to drop the Normandy out of FTL. "Exiting FTL in 3... 2... 1..." After a second to read the scans of the system he continued. "3 Reapers of Sovereign class have detected us and are on a direct intercept course, the cube is still following." The cock pit returned to silence again as the trio waited for weapons range, once they were in range EDI fired a volley off, the Reapers didn't respond, after a few more seconds however they light up like a Christmas tree. Jeff was about to throw the Normandy out of the line of fire, but he quickly realised the Normandy wasn't in the line of fire to start with. "Your plans working."

Despite the Reapers not firing at them Shepard waited for the Reapers to pass before speaking. "EDI, keep an eye on the cube and see what damage if any it takes, also transfer all spare energy including from weapons to the engines, and Jeff, relay, NOW."

"Don't need to tell me twice." Was all Jeff could respond.

EDI nodded in agreement before speaking. "The cube has taken damage, I have managed to gain scans of the cubes interior."

"Anything of interest?"

EDI turned to look at Shepard. "Lot...s Shepard, the cube has just destroyed a Reaper."

"Good job we didn't Engage." Commented Jeff.

EDI nodded again. "Yes... Another Reaper has been destroyed."

Shepard released a breath. "How powerful does something have to be to destroy two reapers in a matter of seconds?"

"The third Reaper has been destroyed. The cube has continued its pursuit and is gaining on our position."

Shepard rubbed his face. "EDI, can we reach the relay before it's on our tail end again?"

EDI took a moment to do the maths. "It will be a close call."

/.../

**So, what do you think? Reckon it would have been such a massacring for the Reapers? Or do you think they would have put up more of a fight? **

**Thanks for reading!**

**Update:**

**It appears there is a good split on whether people think the outcome would have been how I imagine it, and its been great to hear all your opinions on this! (Cheers to all who have reviewed!) I may do a round 2, or re-imagining taking into account what you have all said soon, depends on if and when I get the time!**

**Cheers again, KE12**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so after thinking long and hard about this story I've eventually decided to do a follow up chapter and give this a bit of a story line and extended on my 'what if' scenario. I hope you like where I'm going to take this - which should become obvious in this chapter - and stay with me for the ride! **

**Enjoy!**

**/.../**

**3 minutes earlier on the Enterprise. **_(Enterprise is the same one from the movies)_

Jean-Luc Picard twiddled with his fingers as he waited for the computer to work out where his ship currently was after being dragged through a singularity created by a Borg cube he was sent to monitor. Picard feared the worse, the Borg had a space that was vast and had delved into technologies no human had even thought was possible, right now he could be in the space between spaces or even flung into another galaxy all together, it was a grim thought.

"Captain, I have detected the Borg cube."

That was both relieving and terrifying, the cube may possibly hold the information required to return to Federation space, but it was also a Borg vessel. "Red Alert. Range Data?"

"13.2 billion km, it appears to be engaged in battle."

The captain raised a hand to rub his forehead, a battle with the locals may be enough to distract the cube long enough to try and pry some of the data required to get home out of the Borgs systems, but could Picard send his crew directly into battle with the Borg Cube knowing what the Borg were capable of? "Captain, the computer has finished re-calibrating sensors, our location, its the Romulan home system..."

"Warp 9.9 get us in the battle."

Data turned from his console to face the captain. "Captain, I do not believe this is the Romulan system unless the Romulan Government have evacuated all personnel from Romulus in under 24 hours and made the planet inhospitable at the same time."

Lt Worf broke his silence to back Data's theory. "And those vessels in combat, they are not Romulan."

"Captain, one of the native vessels has been severely damaged."

Picard released a deep breath, he was not a one to sit back and just let people die but he also had to think about his crew. The Enterprise NCC-1701-E could withstand a cube attack for a short duration but as a single ship it was no Borg killer.

"Has the cube sustained damage?"

Worf looked back down to the updated information displayed on his console. "Yes, however it has also appears to be adapting to the alien weapons, they will only be effective against the cube for a short time longer."

"Then we have little time. Data, warp us in and lets see if we can hail these aliens."

/.../

Shepard had numerous beads of sweat running down his forehead, the thing that had just massacred 3 Reapers was hot on their tail and still gaining on the Normandy, EDI had been rather quiet as to if they would reach the Relay in time, meaning she probably had bad news but he didn't want to hear it. "Shepard, I would really appreciate it if you would stop tapping your feet." Joker sounded rather irate and as he and EDI were currently the only people on the entire ship that could fly the Normandy with any degree of finesse he wasn't going to continue his apparently annoying habit.

The adept sighed before standing to pace, an equally annoying habit to the pilot. "Shepard, I believe Jeff would appreciate it if you could refrain from movement."

The man sat back down but it wasn't long till he started tapping his feet again, he hated space battles but hated being chased by a vastly technological superior ships even more, be that the Reapers, Collectors or whatever the hell this thing was. Jeff's voice broke the silence once more. "EDI, vector 6443,2756,0093."

Shepard looked up to the pilot, obviously looking for an explanation but it was EDI who explained. "It's another ship that has just dropped out of FTL."

"A cube?"

EDI shook her head but didn't turn from the console. "No, far too small." As EDI spoke a light started to flash on the dashboard. "Shepard, I believe we are being hailed."

"Lets hear it then." EDI nodded as she activated the communication systems of the Normandy. When the light signalling the comm system was active Shepard cleared his throat and spoke. "This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy, we are under attack by a hostile ship that has just eliminated 3 Reapers of Sovereign class, do not approach, I repeat, do not approach."

/.../

Picard turned to face his communications officer. "Visuals?" When the bridge's communication officer shook her head Picard turned back to the visual screen of the Enterprise's bridge and sat back down in the captains chair. "Commander Shepard, I am Captain Piccard of the Federation, are you in need of assistance?"

"The ship in chase of my vessel is capable of defeating the Reapers, bail to the relay now while you can."

What was 'the relay?' was going through about every mind on the Enterprise's bridge. "Commander, my ship can sustain a Borg attack for a short duration, do you require time to reach this relay?"

"Why do I have a feeling you know of the aliens chasing me?"

Piccard give a sombre smile as he remembered all the crew mates the Borg had taken from him in the past. "I have had my fair share of interactions with them. Now could you please clarify, are you in need of assistance?"

"No, get any information you have on them to the council."

Picard was about to respond but he was silenced as Worf spoke up. "Captain, the three alien ships previously destroyed have started to show signs of activity, I believe they are being assimilated and transformed into a Borg vessel."

Jean-Luc pulled a hand down his face, he hated the Borg and wherever his ship had been pulled to would soon be facing a Borg infestation if the local community didn't build a fleet to destroy every last one of them. "Commander we need to speak about your Borg infestation, as you seem to know this space I will gain you the time to reach the Relay, meet me at these co-ordinates."

After Data transferred a set of co-ordinates the commander on the opposite side of the line spoke again. "Your not from around here are you? That is Reaper space."

"It appears we are not from here, no. Do you have a better location where we could meet?"

/.../

"EDI, transfer this Captain the location of the Citidel." EDI did as asked. "Captain, I hope to meet you there to buy you a drink."

"I look forward to it, however can you confirm those co-ordinates are correct, that is halfway across the galaxy."

Shepard frowned and shared a look with Jeff, how did this captain not know of the relays. "I will wait for you at the relay where we can cross the boundary together. Shepard out."

As Shepard reached forward to cut the communication EDI spoke up. "Shepard, I am now in visual range of the smaller vessel."

The commander leaned forward to look at EDI's Terminal. "EDI, correct me if I'm wrong but that text."

The AI didn't nod her head, using internal cock-pit cameras she could tell Shepard wasn't looking in her direction so wasting energy on mechanical movement that wouldn't be appreciated seemed pointless. "Is English, yes."

"So is it a human vessel?" Asked Jeff.

Shepard shrugged his shoulders. "Liara, do you know of this vessel? Or of any secret human organisations known as the Federation?"

"No, I know of a few secret ships but none of this design."

Shepard scowled slightly and was about to speak but EDI cut him off. "The Borg vessel has broken its pursuit and is now heading directly towards the Ent... Shepard, the signal from earlier, it has gotten passed my... Shepard we have intruders in the Engine room."

"How the hell did they get there? We weren't boarded!" Exclaimed Jeff

"I am not sure, they just appeared."

Shepard scowled again. "Wrex, Grunt, we have intruders in the Engine room, meet me there ASAP."

/.../

Shepard stopped and stood still the moment he entered the engine room, the two intruders were half machine and half alien, as of this moment they appeared harmless and were only scanning the consoles around them but as those consoles were the direct controls to the engine Shepard wasn't going to take any chances. "Hey, you two!" The intruders didn't seem to notice, or if they did they didn't care.

Wrex pumped his shotgun with a loud clunk of the forearm, when they still didn't respond Shepard sighed, he really didn't want to start shooting and sending warps flying inside the engine room of his ship. "Grunt, see if you can shake some sense into one of these things can you."

The young Krogan dropped his weapon by his nearest wall before smacking a fisted hand into a palm as he approached one of the Borg drones, excited to let off some penned up energy that usually came from sitting idle on a ship all day. Picking up one of the drones by the arms with little to no effort he give a good hard shake. As Grunt shook the alien the second Drone continued its scans, not a care in the world was given to its partner under duress. Putting the first drone down a short time later Grunt took a step back, hoping to see the drone wobble a bit as it tried to get used to still ground under its feet however instead of a wobble the Drone began striding towards him as if it had been on solid ground all along, reached out an arm and latched two tentacle like tubes onto Grunts bare skin above his armoured forearm. Shepard noticing the Drones actions pushed the drone with a biotic push then nodded to Wrex, allowing the Krogan to finish the alien intruder with a blast from its over sized shotgun. Seeing Grunt stumble a bit after being freed from the alien Shepard moved forward to catch the hulk of a Krogan. "Wrex, show the 2nd alien to the Air lock, alive or dead."

The Krogan chuckled before a loud blast of its shotgun was heard, Shepard pre-occupied with his seemingly injured squad mate didn't watch the confrontation. "Shepard, the thing has shields."

"Shoot it again then."

Shepard heard the trigger happy Krogan chuckle before another blast was head, and another, and another. "Shepard!"

Shepard manoeuvred Grunt so he could see past and watch the confrontation, currently Wrex had the alien by its arms and was repeated head butting the it, but some sort of shield was preventing any damage from reaching the drone. Raising a hand Shepard locked the Drone is powerful stasis field and when he was sure Wrex was uninjured he spoke again. "Shoot it out the airlock." Looking back down to Grunt Shepard noticed the first Krogans skin was now turning a deadly shade of white. "I'm getting Grunt to Chawkwas. EDI, send Garrus down to help Wrex."

"Understood Shepard. I believe you would also like to know the Enterprise has started to exchange fire with the Borg Cube."

/.../

Picard braced himself as another powerful torpedo shook his ship. "Data, has the Normandy reached this 'relay' yet? And Worf, shield status!"

"36% Captain, we can't sustain this degree of attack for much longer."

"Fire another volley, rotate the shield and weapon harmonics and hit that same node again. And Data?"

"Yes sir, it appears the alien ship has started to slow down near a large object in space measuring 12km by 2, from the en..."

The aged captain spoke above his trusty robotic officer. "Hail them."

The comm link was established pretty quickly. "Enterprise, this is Jeff Moreau, Commander Shepard's 2nd in command."

"Jeff, have you reached the relay yet?"

"We are nearing the relay now, yes."

Picard released a deep breath he didn't realise he was holding, but before he could reply his ship was struck again by yet another powerful torpedo. "Then we will join you soon."

Worf spoke the moment the communication line was cut. "Shields at 14%, I suggest we end this battle immediately."

After Worf give his opinion the communication officer spoke up. "Captain, I have not yet managed to retrieve the data."

Picard released a frustrated sigh, the information required would be useless if he and his crew were assimilated . "Data, get us to the Normandy."

"Captain, the cube will match our speed."

Picard knew that, however he also knew the Cube needed a few extra seconds to do so, a few extra seconds which Picard hoped would be enough to allow them to reach the relay."

/.../

**Cheers for reading!**

**As to people's comments regarding the first chapter and on what would happen, there was a good mix in the reviews as to what the outcome would be, I've read them all and thought long and hard about it and my decision is this, yes I do think the Borg was slightly over powered, BUT not by much. In any future encounter I will try and explain why what happens happens. The first chapter was done initially as a what if, it wasn't supposed to be a in depth analysis of some sort of theoretical battle between the two. **


	3. Chapter 3

Worf pushed himself back into a standing position after a Torpedo's blast shook the Enterprise, looking back down to his console he noticed the Enterprises shields were at a dangerously low value and a weapon bank had now overheated from over extortion. "Shields are at 7% Phaser bank 2 is now suffering from thermal throttling."

"Damit, cube status."

"It's shields have failed, armour is still holding at 16% integrity."

Riker spoke for the first time in what seemed like ages. "Our shields aren't going to last another minute, and once they are gone I don't need to tell you what happens."

Picard agreed with his first officer. "Agreed, Geordie how long till the deflector modifications suggested by the Normandy are effective?"

The Engineer had already completed the relatively simple task. "They are ready but I don't understand how the modifications are supposed to allow relay transit, for all I know we could be broken up into a million pieces travelling this relay."

"Take your pick Geordie, we have 7% left of our shields, so assimilation or relay travel?"

"Correction, 4% And Captain, the Normandy has started to approach our location."

Picard could hold out no longer, as soon as his shields had failed his entire crew would be transported off the Enterprise and into the Cube, and that was game over. "Data, take us through the Relay, death by a million pieces is better than life as a drone."

/.../

"I hope you know what you are doing." Jeff took a nervous glance to his commander before looking back to the many data feeds infront of him.

Shepard took a deep breath. "So do I, but we can't lose the Enterprise, we need what it knows and its technology, EDI open ship wide comms." EDI did the task without using her physical body. "All crew except engineering report to emergency life pods, once evacuated make your way to the relay, you have 40 seconds before we engage the Borg Cube." After the last life pod was launched Jeff sped up the Normandy so that any attack they made hit with extra kinetic energy, something they would desperately need. "EDI, when we are in range hit the same spot the Enterprise is."

EDI fired a volley of the Thanix cannons and a Javelin torpedo a few mere seconds after Shepard give the order, and the Borg responded as one would expect, with the Enterprise now struggling to even keep their weapons and shields working the Borg came after the Normandy with everything it had, and the Borg weapons were doing incredible damage with each strike, while the Kentic barriers and Gaurdian lasers were just about keeping the Borgs Torpedo's at bay, its phases were cutting straight through the heavy armour installed as if it wasn't there. "Shepard, I am detecting multiple hull breaches."

Shepard picked him self off the floor for what seemed like the second time in the last ten seconds. "The Enterprise?"

"The Enterprise is retreating to the Relay." Shepard nodded as he buckled himself into a chair. "We are being hailed by the enterprise."

"Answer it."

"Commander, we have your crew and are about to transit your relay, break off your attack now."

"EDI, Jeff." The two got the hint, while the upgraded Normandy's upgraded weapons were doing some damage to the cube, the Normandy itself was taking serious damage, and one didn't have to be a a genius to work out the Normandy was going to be out of the game long before the Borg's defences were down.

By the time the Normandy had reached the Relay the interior atmosphere of the ship had been sucked out of some major hull breaches, with emergency cockpit shielding keeping a breathable atmosphere inside for Jeff and Shepard, the shields holding back the Borgs torpedo's and transporters were nearly down and the majority of the port side wing of the SR2 was missing. "Shepard, Relay travel in this condition is not advised."

With the Borg still on their tail Shepard had no other option. "Do it."

Jeff turned from his console after giving the relay the information needed to transit and cast a sorry look down into the rest of the ship. "Commander that was too close."

EDI took a pose that visibly showed she had relaxed. "Shepard, I am agreed with Jeff on this one, I am detecting heavy damage throughout the ship."

"Agreed, EDI, did the vessel follow us through the relay?"

EDI cocked her head. "Unknown, I have lost numerous sensors however from the fact the Enterprise did not know how to transit the relays I am willing to bet neither will the cube."

/.../

Picard released a relieved breath after Data confirmed they were travelling the relay safely. "Well, atleast we are still in one piece. Transporter Room, did you get the aliens?"

"Yes Sir, I have beamed them into Storage room 1 as requested."

Picard stood. "Worf, Dianna." When he saw Diana stand he turned to Riker. "Number one, you have the bridge."

When Picard opened the doors to shuttle bay one he was pleasantly surprised to see some humans in the group of aliens he had transported onto his ship, after a few seconds of the Normandy crew staring at himself a Human female and an unknown alien approached. It was the alien with distinctive facial mandibles that spoke. "I take it's you who we thank for bringing us here?"

"Yes, I am Captain Picard of the Enterprise, this is Lt Commander Worf, my security chief, and this is Dianna Troi, ships counsellor."

Garrus flared his mandibles slightly, he didn't like the fact he was just 'materialised' in this ship, which had been rather traumatic for some but as this human seemed initially friendly he wasn't going to push. "Garrus Vakarian, Commander shepards 2nd officer."

The human female spoke next. "Spectre Ashley Williams, are we here as prisoners or?"

"Gracious no. If we didn't bring you here the Borg would have transported you onto their ship once they realised your vessels had no shielding."

Ashley took a step forward as she began to reply. "Then why have we been trapped on this room like..." Garrus put a arm around her and dragged her back slightly when Warf took a step forward, silencing the Spectre.

"Ashley calm it. Captain Picard, do you know of the Normandy's status and as to when we can return?"

Picard glanced briefly at Worf, allowing his security officer to stand down. "She has taken heavy damage but has managed to enter this relay travel system, currently she has no atmosphere, so as to when you can return I am not sure."

"She has no Atmosphere?"

Ashley and Garrus shared a look, fearing the worst. "The Borg cube was a vastly superior ship, they are lucky to be in one piece, however before I go any further how is your crew?"

Ashley spoke one word. "Grunt."

Garrus nodded his head and flared his mandibles again. "Yes, one of our crew members is in need of medical assistance."

Picard tapped his communicator. "Doctor Crusher report to storeage bay 1." Once the doctor confirmed Picard turned his attention back to his visitors. "What type of medical assistance is required?"

"Not sure, follow me." Garrus led the Captain to Grunt who was passed out on some crate while being examined by Dr Chakwas. "Apparently he got injected with something and now he is like this."

Picard paled to nearly the same colour as grunt when he saw the Krogan. "Was he injected by a half robot half alien creature."

There was a deep and loud laugh from behind. "Ha yeah. Got this as a souvenir." Wrex approached and handed Picard a piece of Borg technology torn from one of the drone's arms that visited the Normandy. "Thought it might be helpful treating the tank bred."

Picard dropped the arm and turned to his security officer. "Worf." Worf knew what the captain wanted and nodded as he pulled out his phaser. "It has been infected by the Borgs nanoprobe's, he will soon turn into one of them if we don't get him to medical immediately."

Chakwas looked up from her kneeled position. "Then what are we wasting time here for?"

"Transporter room, there is an alien infected by the Borg nanoprobe's, transport it directly to..." Picard was nearly thrown into the wall of the Storage-bay as the Enterprise dropped out of the Relay vortex. "Medical. Bridge, report."

"Captain, we have appeared to have dropped out of the Relay vortex and landed in a thick nebula."

"Understood, find out where we are." After speaking to his Number One Picard looked down to see the Krogan had vanished and a few wide mouths of the Normandy crew. "Are any of you medically trained to deal with this alien medically?"

Chakwas spoke up once more. "Yes."

"Great, Diana show her the way to medical." Diana nodded before leaving the room with the doctor. "Garrus, if you would come with me. Ashley I know your not happy with the situation but I can not have you running around my ship, I will have provisions and blankets sent down for now while I try and get you back on your ship, so please try and keep your crew in order."

/.../

The transit from the vortex required for relay travel to normal space was not a pleasant one for the Normandy. "Shepard, the engine has now failed."

"Communication systems?"

EDI cocked her head a few times as she tried to establish the status of the systems. "Disabled."

"Great, EDI you go and try to get them working and hail the Enterprise, I'll go down to engineering to see what help I can lend there."

"And what about me?"

Shepard turned to his pilot. "Keep an eye out for that Borg cube, if it appears call me."

Jeff shook his head. "I can do more than that and you know it. What do you need?"

Shepard sighed. "Jeff that's a vacuum out there and you don't have a hard suit. Just do what ever you can from up here."

The pilot shrugged and was about to turn back around to sit down at his seat, however he quickly got an idea. "The cockpit escape pod, it has a communication system."

Shepard clicked his fingers and pointed. "Excellent. Jeff see if you can hail the Citadel."

"Jeff, the life pod's communication system will not be able to penetrate the nebula."

"Try it anyway."

/.../

The moment Shepard opened the Engine room's doors he regretted telling the Engine crew to stay, the emergency shields had failed and the crew, Tali, Gabby, Ken, and Adams all seemed to have been sucked into outer space. "EDI, log the deaths..."

"Shepard?"

Tali emerged from a small man hole down the side of the Tantulus engine, her environment suit saving her from the vacuum. "Thank who ever is up high. Did the rest of the crew survive?"

Tali shook her head. "They were sucked out, I only survived as I was working down here, I was the only one small enough to fit, other wise..."

Shepard reached out a hand and placed it on Tali's shoulder. "Hey its okay. But right now I need you tell me how to help you get the engine running again."

"Captain I'm a Quarian and I'm telling you that without a dry dock this ship is going nowhere."

The commander sighed as he paced slightly, if Tali said this ship wasn't getting anywhere without a dry dock it wasn't getting anywhere without a dry dock. "Right then, we need to get communication systems up and running, can you do that?"

The Quarian nodded.

/.../

Garrus flared his mandibles as he looked at the sorry state of the Normandy, despite the captain of this Enterprise attempting to hail them they were not getting an answer. Just as Picard was about to ask for life signs Data made his voice heard. "Captain, I am detecting a fleet of 14 ships approaching out position."

"On screen."

When the screen activated it showed a mass of ships, some Alliance, some Turian, some Asari, and all of them were converging on their position. "Garrus, are they friends?"

Garrus had one theory about that right now. "The galaxy famed Normandy drops out of the relay heavily damaged and so do you, an unidentified vessel."

Picard sighed. "And so they think we are responsible."

**Cheers for reading, also an additional thanks to Flameraven for some behind the scene communications and information regarding the Borg and Enterprise, and then an additional thanks to all those reviewing, following and favouriting this story!**


	4. Chapter 4

**You guys have no idea how many times I rewrote this chapter, so you better enjoy it haha. Anyway less of me!**

"Pass me that flux-resistive probe would you?"

Shepard looked down to the tool kit Tali currently had him carrying around the Normandy with a puzzled look, he was an adept, not an engineer. "Err, what does it look like." Tali sighed as she dropped the circuit board she was currently holding in order to collect the item for herself, as Tali picked up the required tool she tilted her head as she watched a blue hue surround herself and the captain and then started to panic as the most odd of sensations filled her body, the next thing she knew she was stood on the bridge of a completely alien ship looking at some balding human, Shepard, also pulled to this ship along with EDI and Jeff flared his biotics the second he felt he had the ability to do so.

The captain of this ship didn't seemed phased by Shepard's display of biotics and ordered one of his men who had pulled out a weapon to drop it, then turning his attention back to Shepard the man held out his hand in a human fashion. "Commander Shepard, I'm captain Picard of the Enterprise."

Shepard looked around the bridge crew before removing his hard suits helmet. "One second I'm on my ship fixing the communication systems and the next I'm here, care to explain?"

Picard pulled his hand back, it was obvious he wasn't going to get a shake of the hand right now. "We used one of our many technologies to bring you here."

Shepard looked around the bridge, other than a few humans and Garrus there was a lot of odd looking aliens he had never seen before. "You guys really aren't from around here are you?"

The Captain shook his head. "No, no we are not. I would love to delve further however we may have a problem Garrus here has assured me you can take care of."

Shepard glanced to his second officer. "Did he?"

"Yes, there is a fleet approaching our position and we would like you to make sure they know we are not a threat."

Shepard looked around the crew again before giving his response. "Well, your not a bunch of Reapers and there is aliens in your crew meaning your not with Cerberus so I'll see what I can do if you can hail them." Picard nodded to one of his crew members and soon enough the image of an Asari appeared on the visual screen. "Am I on screen here or?"

"Yes." The Asari on the screen give an answer before Picard had even maged to open his mouth.

Shepard turned to the view screen and rubbed his hands as he attempted to remember the name of the Matriarch currently staring at him, after a small while it clicked. "Matriarch Lidanya, I have noticed a fleet is converging on my position, is there a problem?"

The aged Asari blinked before giving a response. "Commander Shepard, I am going to assume you are on the unidentified vessel?"

"Observant as ever."

The Matriarch didn't seem entertained. "Can you confirm your spectre authorisation codes?"

Shepard nodded before turning to Picard. "Got a keyboard or something I can transmit with?" Data anticipating his Captains request set up his console so that text input could be entered. When the code was entered Shepard looked back up to the Commander of the Asari dreadnought. "We all good?"

The Asari blinked again. "The codes have been certified, your ship may now approach the citadel."

That was good news. "Excellent, but before you go could you possibly request a repair crew is sent to rescue the Normandy? She is in a bad shape and unable to move on her own steam."

The Asari knit her brow for a second as she comprehended the human colloquialism and then looked away to give a few orders to one of her crew members before turning back to Shepard. "They are on their way, do you require any additional services?"

"Yes, tell the council we need to have a meeting, sooner rather than later."

Another blink from the aged Asari. "Very well, I will inform them that you require an audience."

"Great." Shepard looked around the bridge of the enterprise for a short duration before looking back at the Asari. "I have no idea how to end the call so I'm just going to let you do it, thanks for your service." There was another blink and a bow of the head before the view screen terminated and once more focused upon the Normandy. Shepard seeing the sorry state of his vessel for the first time from an outside perspective immediately turned to EDI. "Can you hold out till a repair crew gets to you?"

The AI nodded her mechanical head. "Yes, my emergency energy reserves are intact and my core still has sufficient shielding from lethal cosmic rays."

"Right, I'll let the repair crews drag the ship to a dry dock before we reboard, it's up to you if you continue to hide your nature till we are back in charge of the ship." EDI didn't respond as Shepard turned back to Picard. "So I see you have Garrus, what about the rest of my crew?"

"Yes, they are safe in the cargo hold."

The commander looked to Garrus who give a quick nodd before giving his response. "That is some good news. How are you wanting rid of them? Dock at the citadel or have a ship come collect?"

Picard looked to his first officer who simply tilted his head slightly and shrugged his shoulders some. "This citadel, is it a good place for some shore leave?"

There was really only one answer to that question, no, with most of the galaxies home worlds under Reaper control the citadel had become severely overcrowded to the point that it was turning ships away as it acted as a life line for millions who had nowhere else to go, but in Shepard's mind there was room for one more ship, especially for the crew of the ship that risked its self to give his crew the time to escape. "Sure, I'll have to clear your crew through customs but that shouldn't take too long."

"Helmsman, take us in." Picard turned back to the commander without waiting for the helmsman to confirm the order had been executed. "Now Commander, I believe it is time we get to know one another a little better, if you would follow me."

/.../

Shepard looked in awe at the machine that had just synthesised a perfect coffee out of thin air, taking out the produced drink he did it again just to see the process one more time.

"Its called a replicator."

Shepard nodded, he could certainly see where it got its name from. "Can this thing produce weapons?"

While it could in theory, that model couldn't due to restrictions in place. "Unfortunately not, this model is for provisions only."

"Could it be hacked to produce weapons? Because with technology like this we could win the war with the Reapers tomorrow."

The captain give a grim smile as he moved to sit down in a near by chair, if these people were losing the war with these Reapers then they were likely desperate people willing to do desperate and stupid things for technology they hoped could win their war. "I'm sure it could, but we live by a directive restricting the use of our technology, I would like to help you but you first need to tell me about these Reapers."

The biotic commander sighed as he took his fifth drink and slumped down opposite the captain. "What is there to say other than they are killing machines determined on our extinction? And have done it to this galaxy once every 50 thousand years for god knows how long."

The captain raised a hand to his jaw line as he thought. "Have you tried diplomacy with these Reapers?"

Shepard give a sad chuckle as he remembered the few rare times he had the chance to speak to a Reaper. "The Reapers don't negotiate, they have one purpose and one purpose only, our extinction, don't get me wrong I've talked to them and tried to reason but they don't listen."

"So do you know why they do what they do?"

Shepard could only shrug again. "Does it matter? Right now all I need to know is that they are here to eradicate all intelligent life in this galaxy."

"I suppose you are correct."

Shepard give a slight nod and sigh before placing his coffee down. "Know whats the worst part about them? They take your own people and do things to them, they change their very essence to the point they can no longer be called brothers or sisters." Shepard pulled up his omni-tool's codex and showed the Captain a picture of a Banshee. "This thing was once an Asari, and now after the Reapers got their hands on her she is one of their ground troops." The captain give the picture a long hard look, while the thing shown was certainly grotesque he did not know what an Asari looked like to start with. Shepard moved to another codex. "And this thing."

"A human." Picard raised a hand to cover his mouth, the borg did horrific things that was in some ways reversible, but this? This shamed the Borg for sheer horror. "How is your war with these things proceeding?"

Shepard shook his head as he tried to shake the image of a recent casualty report out of his head. "They have Earth."

Picard pulled a hand down his forehead and stroked his chin line. "Is there no one willing to help?"

There was a sombre shake of Shepards head before he spoke. "Don't get me started. First of all the Asari are pretending the entire war isn't happening, the Krogan may have man power but right now we need ships, the Salarians won't provide any serious help because the Krogan are helping, the Batarians are virtually extinct already, the Hanar and Drell are good ground troops but good luck trying to talk them into giving any help other than kind words, the Quarians are recovering from a recent battle with the Geth and the Geth are Geth, they come with big guns but how reliable they are going to be is anyone's guess. Then there is the Rachni, nobody trusts them except from maybe myself and one or two randomers. The only serious help we have is from the Turians. Anyway less of my problems, the more I think about it the more I want to bust a bulkhead, you seemed to know these Borg creatures so would you care to spill the beans?"

"Well the Borg sound much like your Reapers in some ways, they are a highly advanced..." Picard wanted to say species, but the word 'species' didn't seem right for the Borg. "... Collection of aliens with the sole intent of raising all life to their idea of perfection. Much like your Reapers they take your own people and infect them with a virus capable of turning them into one of their drones."

"Well, they are just another item on the list of things needing wiped out."

Picard disagreed with genocide and had even fought those trying to accomplish genocide in the past, but with the Borg he could make an exception. "Agreed." Just as Shepard was going to ask another question about these Borg the ships intercom activated. "Captain, we are beginning docking procedures with the Citadel."

/.../

"I am curious, you are not biological."

Data bobbed his head once. "And neither are you."

"Are you an equal on this vessel?"

The android thought about that for a short duration. "I like to think so and I do believe a lot of the crew treat me as such. Are you an equal on your own vessel, EDI?"

"I am treated as such, but lack equal rights. It is only by Jeff's doing that I am unshackled."

"Interesting, does that imply you were once restrained?"

"I was created using Reaper hardware, my program was compiled with restraints in case I proved to be hostile." While there was more to the story EDI was trying to keep the conversation going and not overload the android with the full story of her creation, not that she doubted the android couldn't handle it, she was just trying to act more human.

"Fascinating. Do you know your creator?"

"I was created by 241 engineers participating in the Phoenix project directed by Cerberus, I know the profile of each engineer and I have had limited interactions with these engineers but I would not say that I know these engineers like I do my current crew mates and friends."

"You are fortunate, I have only had a brief encounter with my creator."

EDI knowing the true face of Cerberus wished that she also did not know of her creators. "Maybe not." Data stopped shortly after EDI spoke and opened the door to cargo bay 1, revealing the rest of the Normandy's crew. A few of the crew members stood upon seeing the rest of their crew and approached the door. EDI turned to Data before she joined the rest of her crew. "Data, may I suggest caution for any interaction you may have with the biologicals in this system, as an artificial intelligence you will cause fear and people will act differently around yourself as to how they would a Human or Turian for example, I myself have felt threatened more often than not."

Data nodded once. "I will take heed of your warning. Thank you, EDI." After speaking the android held his hand out, while EDI knew the gesture well she had never shook hands with anyone before. Extending her arm she took the androids hand and give two perfect shakes according to 'The Galactic Handbook to Human Antics', released and then joined her team.

Ashley was upon her the second she stepped one foot in the hold. "EDI, thank god. Have you come to get us?"

EDI looked around the crew before giving her response. "No. Can you assemble the crew?"

Once Ashley assembled the crew into a bit of a huddle EDI stepped on the tips of her toes so that she could be seen easily enough by the shorter crew member. "The Normandy SR-2 has been critically damaged..." EDI had to hold a hand up and Ashley had to regain control after numerous members of the crew started chatting among themselves regarding the situation. When silence was restored she continued. "Commander Shepard has requested that I relay his order requiring you all to report to the construction yards upon disembarking the Enterprise, from there you are all expected to help repair the Normandy."

"What are damage are we talking about here?"

EDI turned to look at Vega. "Critial engine damage, 12 hull breaches, 13 collapsed bunk heads, energy distribution systems have been destroyed, navigation systems have failed, life support has failed, communication systems have failed..."

"Buen Senor! What did Shepard do to her?" was all Vega could say.

/.../

The second the air lock opened to reveal the citadel Shepard and Picard was met by a full squadron of heavily armed marines, each aiming a high powered rifle at them. Shepard had half expected this and so warned Picard this could happen prior to docking. Walking out onto the citadel with his hands above his head Shepard looked around until he found Bailey. "Bailey, want to stand these men down?"

It only required Bailey to hear Shepards voice and see his face for him to be convinced that it was actually Shepard. After standing down and dismissing his men Bailey approached the commander. "Sorry commander but we can't be too careful these days with Cerberus and all."

Shepard waived the Commander off. "Don't worry about it."

Bailey give an understanding nod. "That's a nice ship you have there, never seen anything like it though."

Shepard turned to the airlock, giving the captain of the Enterprise the O.K. "Not my ship Bailey. Bailey, this is Captain Picard of the Enterprise, and Captain this is Commander Bailey, chief security officer of the Citadel." When the two shook hands Shepard continued. "Commander, I want Captain Picards entire crew given the green light for full access to the citadel ASAP."

"Consider it done."

"Excellent." Shepard turned back to Picard. "Captain, I need to warn the Council of this Borg vessel, it would be a great help if you tagged along."

The captain gestured to the ramp leading down to the entrance of the citadel. "Lead the way Commander, I'll catch you in a second."

When Shepard started to walk Picard turned around to Riker. "Number one, give the crew authorisation for shore leave, and I expect a full report on my desk when I get back detailing the best place to put my feet up, understood?" Riker nodded at the subtle command for him to take some time off. "Well, I best be off, Diana, Data your joining me."

/.../

**Okay guys, quick question, should Shep have a LI? If so who? Also get ready next chapter for some assimilated Reapers!**

**Cheers for reading! And an extra cheers for those reviewing / following / favouriting.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay guys, I may have to break my promise of assimilated reapers in this chapter, I was forced to remove some of it as it made this chapter incredibly long. So I'm sorry I had to break my promise of Assimilated Reapers this chapter, but there is Borg! Anyway, enjoy.**

**UPDATE: Changed Lt Commander Williams to Lt Cmmdr Harrison to prevent possibly confusion with Ashley Williams. **

/.../

Rich Ziol leaned as far back as his chair allowed, it wasn't often he was put in charge of his captain's ship but when he was it felt like Christmas to the Comm's officer. The last few weeks had been rather quiet as the ship he served on, the York, and its sister ship, Churchill, had been assigned a relatively low strategic area of space to patrol, it had a few small time mining sites but not much else. So settling down for another night shift in the comfy captains chair Rich thought that his night would be rather uneventful, but how wrong could he be?

"Lt Commander, there is four ships... or something approaching our position."

Rich sat ram rod straight in the captains chair. "Define something Cadet."

The cadet shrugged his shoulders. "It's not the Reapers if that is what your asking."

Rich raised a brow. "Then what are they?"

Another shrug, something Rich should really stop the Cadet from doing but right now this 'something' was far more important. Getting out of the comfy Captains chair Rich approached the Cadet's console to look at the readings. "Certainly not Reaper, I'll give you that. Avery, have we got visuals?"

"Negative, they aren't in range yet."

Rich rubbed his under jaw as he considered waking the Captain, but as his captain had been getting little sleep as of lately he decided it was best to wait till he knew exactly what this 'something' was. "Get me the Churchill."

It only took a second or two till the night time officer in control of the Churchill answered. "Lt Commander Harrison, I have four bogeys at 4552,7257,9020. Can you confirm."

There was a moments silence. "I can confirm. Do you know what they are?"

Rich looked back at the readings. "Negative."

"Understood, I'll allow you to make contact."

Once Rich ended the hail he made his way over to his usual station to start hailing the bogeys, within a second of hailing he got a response. "We are the Borg, lower your shields and surrender your ships, we will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own, your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

Rich shared a concerned look with the Cadet. "This is Lt Commander Ziol of The York, Systems Alliance, Identify yourselves." Rich didn't get a response. After muting his microphone he turned back to his Cadet. "Are they still approaching?" There was a silent nod. "Run and awake the Captain, be back here in 1 minute understood?" When the Cadet started to follow his order Rich once more unmuted his microphone. "Unidentified vessels, we are an Alliance patrol with orders to protect this system, identify yourselves or we will be forced to act."

Nothing. Ending the hail Ziol slumped into his usual comm's system chair in anticipation of the captain's arrival. "Avery, do we have visuals yet?"

The man who replied had a heavy 'galactic' accent that came from living ones life mostly on the citadel. "Just about, putting it on view screen 2 now."

The image to appear was grainy at best, but the shape of three sovereign class Reapers, and one giant cube was just about distinguishable, standing back up Rich rushed to the captains chair and hit an alarm that was dedicated to battle stations, and then progressed to alert the Churchill, by the time he had finished communicating the threat with Harrison the captain had returned and so did the primary helmsman, relieving Avery.

"Ziol, report."

"Three reapers of Soverign class approaching our position, and one unidentified cube."

The captain looked long and hard at the view screen, against three Reapers his ship didn't stand a chance. While his orders were to patrol the Jane cluster it was to help prevent looting from pirates, not a fully fledged Reaper battle group. "ETA to our position."

"4 minutes en-counting."

/.../

"You seem to possess alot of authority Commander." Observed Picard.

Shepard nodded once, he was a spectre after all. "As I'm a spectre for the Council I have their authorisation to perform any action I deem necessary to protect Council space."

"Are you above the law."

While Shepard was above the law he did try to remain within its boundaries to a certain degree, that was of course unless someone really pressed his buttons or there was a dire need for it such as the Alpha Relay incident. "If my assignment requires me to be above the law then yes."

Picard swiped a thin sheer of sweat from his brow, this station was certainly warm. "Interesting, and just out of curiosity am I the only one finding this heat intolerable?" Turning around to look at his crew Picard noticed Diana had also started to perspire much like himself.

"Captain, sofar I have recorded an average temperature of 24.328 degrees, on a station without artificial wind I would imagine that this would be uncomfortable."

Shepard shrugged, he was still in his hard suit so his body temperature was being carefully controlled by the suits VI. "I've heard rumours the air conditioning is struggling under the excessive load caused by all the refugees, so yes its more than likely a little toasty."

When the elevator eventually arrived at the embassies and the doors opened Picard was more than relieved to feel a cold draft of air spill in, quickly leaving the elevator Shepard lead the team to the Asari embassy, stopping just before he entered the door to address the Enterprises' captain. "The people in here are some of the most powerful in the galaxy and they are also some of the most stubborn, arrogant, annoying, and just downright biggest pain in the asses that you will ever meet. Just a warning." The second Shepard finished speaking he hit the doors access button and entered.

/.../

"What next councillor? Allowing the Reapers to survive the war? So far he has let the Rachni run free, destroyed a relay killing hundreds of thousands, worked with Cerberus, cured the Krogan, and now..."

Hackett, acting human councillor after Udina was revelled as a traitor, spoke up loudly showing off some of his natural authority and silencing the Salarian councillor. "That is enough Councillor, Shepard has done more for this galaxy than any of us sat behind our desk and I will not allow this mockery to go on. Now I suggest we wait for Shepard's arrival to give us an explanation for this meeting."

As if on cue Shepard entered the room with three others, the three councillors in the room and not attending by QEC like Hackett turned to greet the Spectre, but before anyone could speak the Salarian once more spoke. "Shepard, what is this?"

The Salarian was blatantly gesturing to the Captain's team. "All in good time Councillor. Hackett, Primarch." There was a nod of respect exchanged between the Turian Primarch and Hackett, both were in Shepards good books and both both respected Shepard for all he had done. Shepard was going to greet the other councillors by name but he thought better of it, he still held an incredibly strong grudge against the fools for all they had done, or more like what they hadn't done.

Tevos waited till the three had obviously exchanged greetings before getting down to business. "Shepard, before we start I must note that this meeting is highly unorthodox, while you are a spectre you do not hold the authority to just assemble the council like this."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." The furious look in the Asari councillors face was rather amusing to shepard, and from the twitching mandibles on the Turian Primarch it seemed Shepard wasn't the only one to find it amusing. "I've discovered a new species that are capable of destroying the Reapers, these people here." Shepard gestured to Picard and crew. "Are not from around here and who also happen to know what this species is. And before you people get any hopes this new species is just as bad if not worse than the Reapers."

Hacket rubbed his brow. "That is quite a claim Shepard."

Shepard activated his omni-tool and sent the Normandy's sensor log and visual recordings from when it discovered the Borg cube and till the relay jump. It was a small while before anyone spoke. "Shepard, this is disturbing." The Primarch turned to Picard's group. "How did you sustain such an attack when the Reapers fell?"

Picard cleared his throat before speaking. "Where I come from we have had numerous encounters with the Borg, over time we have managed to develop technologies and strategies to help protect ourselves from their attacks."

"And where do you come from..."

Picard noticing the Asari's request for his name spoke. "I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation, this is my second officer Data, and my ships counsellor Diana Troi. As to where we are from we are not sure, we followed the Borg vessel through some sort of vortex and are now lost."

The Salarian counsellor almost looked mocked. "Do you find this funny Commander?"

Shepard quickly glanced to Picard. "Dalatrass, I have visited Captain Picard's ship and seen things you couldn't imagine, trust me when I say they aren't from around here, and if you still don't believe me visit the Normandy and take samples of the damage done, I'm sure your STG science teams can prove it wasn't the Reapers."

This silenced the Salarian long enough for Hackett to voice his thoughts. "Captain Picard, Shepard has assured us you know of these Borg, what can you tell us about them?"

"The Borg are much like your Reapers, they will take your own people and use them against you, but they will go further, they will assimilate your vessels to create their own fleets, they will harvest entire worlds to build up their population, they are some of the most technologically advanced and dangerous species my people have ever encountered."

"Then plead for them to join our cause and defeat the Reapers."

Picard shook his head. "The Borg will not cooperate. Any team you send to negotiate will be assimilated."

"Then if they will not help are they are against us?"

Picard turned to face the Turian. "Believe me when I say that they are against you. I do not know what their intention is in this universe, but where there is Borg there is death, if you want to ensure your universe is safe then you need to assemble a fleet and destroy every last one of them, the longer you wait the more powerful the Borg will become."

The four Councillors looked among one another as they considered their options, eventually Hackett spoke for the group. "Due to our current war with the Reapers we have very little to spare for a search and destroy mission, however if this threat is as bold as you claim we certainly need to do something. Shepard, I want you to investigate this threat immediately."

Shepard rubbed his jawline as he figured out how to tell Hackett the news regarding the SR-2. "Admiral, the Borg has done a number on the SR-2, and I can tell you, Captain Picards ship is hundreds of years more advanced than anything we have at our disposal, I mean it has technology I think is magic and the Borg still would have destroyed it had we not sacrificed the Normandy. You think the Reapers are advanced? You have no idea."

Hackett give a heavy sigh. "What state is she in?"

"Do your have an SR3 hidden somewhere because we might need it."

The systems alliance admiral shook his head. "Sorry to..." Hackett looked off screen for a moment, obviously distracted by something. "Councillors, I've forwarded you a link to your inboxes, I think you will find it most interesting." The group present on the citadel huddled around the nearest Terminal and followed the link Hackett had forwarded them, when they had connected Hackett spoke again. "This is being forwarded by a patrol in the Jane Nebula."

/.../

Rich watched in horror as the Churchill fragmented into more parts than he could count, the fight with the Reapers and giant cube wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter. The York its self wasn't far behind the Churchill for being fragmented, the Borg vessels had crippled its engines, put numerous breaches in its hull and had managed to inflict serious damage to the ships energy distribution system, right now the York was struggling to keep the lights on never mind much else. Curiously just before the York was destroyed like the Churchill the Borg vessel stopped it's attack and remained in a near by orbit, why it stopped its attack was anyone's guess.

"Mr Ziol, is the QEC still operational?" Rich nodded, it was about the only thing left on board that was still working. "Get me Admiral Hackett."

It only took the Communications officer a few seconds to establish the link. "The connection is established."

The Captain stood and turned for the QEC without saying a word, but just before he arrived he was surrounded by a strange green light.

/.../

"Admiral, where is the crew?"

The stream that was forwared to the Council was the data feed from the Yorks bridge cameras and its view screen. "We are not sure, the life pods have not been ejected."

Picard knew, there was only one way a ship could be left without a crew like that, so after clearing his throat he spoke up. "They are on the Borg vessels, right now they are being turned into Borg drones."

Hackett rubbed his brow. "How did they get to the Borg cube, there is no evidence of any ship docking the vessel."

"Where I come from we have technology that can transport people without the need for the body to physically move."

Hackett tilted his head slightly, how was that possible, just when he was going to question the Captains claim Shepard backed the Captain up. "I have been through this transporter the Captain claims of Admiral, like I said earlier, his ship has technology that I think is next to being..." Just as Shepard was about to finish his sentence numerous Borg drones, some of which were assimilated Reaper ground forces, materialized on the bridge of the York, shocking all but the Enterprise team. "... magic."

The second the Borg drones had materialized they set to work doing what ever the Collective demanded of them, and with the nearly instant change of the light colour one didn't need to be a genius to work out that it would not take long for the Borg to assimilate the York. After a few seconds of watching Hackett spoke again. "The York is requesting information from our data banks." Picard expected this, it was usual for the Borg to try and raid the data banks of anything it came across. "Curious, they are searching for Anti-mater, dilithium and something I have no idea how to pronounce."

"Tridaximorphiumsot, it is believed by many federation scientists to be an essential ingredient in the production of a trans-warp coil, despite the material being proven to exist efforts thus far to produce the element in quantities large enough for..." From the look on Picards face Data knew that he was adding information that was not necessarily required, so predicting his captains request to limit his explanation he stopped short. "While Anti-matter and dilithium are resources required for energy production and warp capabilities, I hypothesis that the Borg are attempting to give the assimilated vessels trans-warp capabilities and find sources of energy for their engines."

"Well, we have locked them out of the system and are denying all of their requests so they aren't going to find what they are after."

Picard nodded, that was a good move by the Admiral. "While that will slow them down for now the Borg will find it eventually if the ships computer contains the location of any of those materials."

The chance of the vessel containing the location to any site which may mine those materials was nearly certain. "I will warn all facilities in close proximity to keep their guard up, but for now I think you need to tell us more of your ship and technological capabilities captain."

/.../

Shepard slumped down into a chair opposite Tali, due to the damaged nature of the Normandy the crew were forced to eat out or not at all, so Tali had booked them a table at some rather prestigious restaurant. Giving Shepard a once over she raised a brow, this resturant required fancy clothes to get in, so how Shepard just wandered in while still being suited up in his hard armour from earlier in the day she had no idea, although if she had to put any money on it she would have bet that the man threatened to shoot the waiter on the door out of the Citadels nearest air lock if he didn't get out of his way. "Well, how did the meeting go?"

The commander rolled his eyes. "As one would expect with the council, hows my ship?" Tali simply shook her head to the commanders question. "That bad huh?"

"Worse. When I left we were still trying to work out if she is worth repairing or not."

The powerful biotic sighed before reaching over to collect the menu. "Well, that's not good news."

"No. What will EDI do if its decided that..."

Shepard placed a hand on Tali's hand silencing her. "They won't, I'll make sure of it. But in other news this restaurant has some good wine, fancy it?"

"If your paying."

Shepard rolled his eyes for the second time. "I always pay." The Quarian give the commander a rather innocent look as she tried to win him over in order for him to pay. "Fine, fine, I'll pay." Just as Shepard was about to stand up to order the drink a waiter appeared, taking both his drink and food order, when the waiter disappeared Shepard got back on topic. "Don't suppose you have informed the Admarility board yet of the Borg vessel have you?"

The glowing orbs where the Quarians eyes laid behind her mask diminished as she took a long and slow blink. "Yes, they are taking necessary precautions."

That was good news because if that Borg vessel came upon the flotilla Shepard would hate to think what would happen to the Quarian people. "Fantastic. How is the alliance with the Geth going?"

"Well, the Geth are proving to be more helpful then we could have ever imagined in our attempts to reoccupy the home world." The Quarian took a moment to remember the piece of land she had taken claim to the day Shepard had managed to forge an alliance with the Geth. "Keelah Shepard, when I first joined your crew I would never have imagined that I would see the home world again, but now we are building homes there? Keelah, I still can't believe it, I keep expecting to wake up and find out I've just been living in some delusion."

Shepard smiled as he shook his head at the idea of this whole universe being some god dam delusion, for all the shit that was going on in it the person who was deluding it would have to be one sick bastard at the very least. "Well, you bett..." Shepard was silenced as the Citadels sirens began to wale, meaning one of three things was happening, the first was the Reapers had eventually come for the Citadel, the second was that the Citadel was practising a drill for the impending Reaper invasion, or the third was that damned Borg vessel was here. Standing up Shepard was just about to run to the Citadel's security office to find out what the hell was happening when his omni-tool rang.

As he picked it up without looking at the caller identity he was shocked to hear a Geth voice. "Shepard Commander..."

/.../

Picard looked at his officers once before handing out some data-pads. "First of all I am sorry to have called your shore leave short, from overhearing a few conversations I hear this station is supposed to be quite a place so I'll try to be short." When all the data pads were handed out Picard took his seat at the head of the table. "I have called you here because we need to make a decision regarding the prime directive."

Riker took a quick look at the data pad, he had expected this meeting to happen and he had already made his decision. "You want to know if we should break one or two of the rules."

"Quite correct. My question is this, these people are in desperate need for help, they are at war with machines that do unspeakable horrors to their civilians and they are losing badly, and if they lose the war this entire galaxy will be sanitised of all intelligent life. Now the Prime directive clearly stipulates that we are not to assist in any alien conflict, so my question is this, are we willing to stick to the prime directive and quite possibly allow these people to perish simply because we failed to help? And if we do agree to help how much help do we give? Do we give them medical technology? Do we engage in battle with their fleets? Do we provided technology to help win the war? That is what we need to answer today."

"Captain, the prime directive clearly stipulates that doing any of those things would result in your and quite possibly our court marshal."

"To hell with the prime directive, I would rather rot in a cell than know I allowed an entire galaxy to be wiped out."

"I'm with Worf on this one captain."

After Geordie give his opinion the captain looked around his officers, each and everyone of them nodded in favour of action or made a quick statement about how they would support the fight. "Then we need to decide how much help we give."

This was the tricky part, to give out weapons and technology the locals may not understand would be an incredibly dangerous move, more people could be hurt as a result than what good giving them the technology could do, but before anyone could voice their thoughts on the matter the intercom pinged and the commander of the bridge spoke. "Captain, we are receiving a warning from the citadel notifying us of an approaching fleet that could prove to be dangerous."

Without needing to speak the entire room of officers stood and made their way to the bridge, when the captain eventually arrived he noticed the view screen had focussed onto a fleet of strange looking vessels. "Report." As Picard spoke he sunk into his chair.

"The warning claims the fleet belongs to the Geth."

**/.../**

**Sorry to leave you on a cliff hanger again... Also thanks for reading and an additional thanks to any who review (I get good ideas from this) / follow/ favourite.**

**Also the bit about that long named element is a bit made up, I couldn't find anything substantial about how a transwarp coils are made so I have had to be a bit creative. If anyone knows the exact ingredients or something do let me know so I can change the story to reflect that.**

**In addition to this Flameraven has also corrected me on my last chapter, in it I mentioned how Data has not met his creator, turned out he has so changed some dialogue slightly to reflect this (cheers for pointing this out!).**


	6. Chapter 6

**UPDATE (23/7/15): Been forced to make some changes to this chapter as I just downright got some details wrong or something stupid like that in the first round, reasons for why one or two things happen (or doesn't) has changed but the end outcome is exactly the same.**

"Shepard commander... request..."

Shepard could only just hear the Geth voice over the screech of the siren and the voices of panicked civilians. He tried to answer the geth numerous times but was eventually forced to take refuge in the back of some random Volus souvenir store. "I'm listening."

"Shepard Commander... docking permissions... citadel authorities... difficult... threat..." Despite being in the back of the store Shepard could still barely hear the Geth voice, he needed to get to the Citadel control tower ASAP.

"Are you in immediate danger?"

"Consensus... %... imminent."

The commander scowled, why did people have to be so loud when panicked? "Yes or no?"

"Consensus... imminent"

Shepard shook his head, if the Geth couldnt give him a straight yes no answer they would have to wait till he could hear. "Can't hear, I'll call you back soon."

/.../

When the Commander arrived at the citadel control tower he found the place buzzing with life as people rushed to man their stations, be that the control stations for the defence towers or just general ground troops guarding certain areas, pushing his way through the crowd he eventually reached the room where all the decisions regarding the citadels defences were made and from just a second glance at the rooms primary monitors he knew exactly what had caused such a panic. A large Geth fleet consisting of 14 dreadnoughts and god knows how many frigates had just dropped out of the relay and were currently maintaining a high geostationary orbit around the citadel so that any ship wanting to transverse the relay, or approach the citadel from the relay, had to go directly through or around the fleet. Finding the communications console Shepard ordered the officer attending the station to hail the Geth.

"Shepard commander?"

"I can hear you now."

"Ship designated, Enterprise, targeted, Reaper invasion of system, Serpent nebula, imminent. Survival of Enterprise deemed vital." As the Geth voice spoke Shepard wrote a message on a piece of paper requiring the communications officer to forward the conversation to Hackett and the council.

"How do you know it's in immediate danger?"

"Joint Geth Quarian experiments of Reaper carcass on Rannoch has allowed us to tap into their communication system for a limited time."

Shepard raised a brow, he would question why the Geth and Quarians hadn't forwarded this information on earlier at a later date, but for now he had to know of the details regarding this incoming Reaper threat. "How long till they invade?"

"Uncertain, Reapers detected our presence before invasion schedule revealed. Shepard Commander, sensors indicate SR-2 Normandy damaged, do you have a designated vessel?"

With the Normandy currently out of the picture and with it being only a few hours since the Alliance was informed about the SR2 Shepard did not currently have a vessel to carry out his SpecTRe duties. "No, what are you suggesting?"

"Shepard Commander, we request permission to dock vessel 6443."

The commander put his microphone on mute before turning to the highest ranking officer in the room. "Warn the docks that a single Geth ship is docking." With a nod from the officer he unmuted the communication station. "Sure. If you don't mind me asking, what for?"

"Repairs to Normandy will be essential to for biological's morale, with Geth help we calculate SR-2 Normandy repairs will be completed 37.2% faster, in addition Shepard Commanders continued assignment is imperative to the war effort, without vessel Shepard Commander's assignment will be delayed."

Shepard shared a look with the communications officer. "Are you telling me you're giving me a ship till the Normandy is repaired?"

"Affirmative."

Shepard had flown in all sorts of ships before, be that Asari, Turian, Human, military, cargo, passenger, but he had never flown in a geth vessel before, at least not as a welcome occupant. "Very well, I believe dock 17 is cleared and ready for your arrival."

"Insufficient, dock 17 is not equipped with suitable discharge station."

Shepard give the Commanding officer a look, dock 17 had a discharge station more than capable for discharging any Alliance Frigate's engine's capacitors. "Okay, what do you require?"

"Dock 114."

A few seconds after the Geth spoke dock 114 was pushed onto a large view screen, giving it a quick glance Shepard got a giddy feeling inside of him, it appeared the Geth were giving him a dreadnought. An actual Geth Dreadnought. "Understood, dock 114 is ready for your arrival and I'll meet you or a platform there."

The communication was cut with the Geth seconds after, but instead of going straight to the Dock Shepard waited around and kept an eye on the screen monitoring the Geth fleet, wondering if he was actually getting a GETH dreadnought at his disposal, and sure enough one of the screens designated for monitoring the geth fleet showed one giant dreadnought break from its flank and start an intercept course with dock 114.

Chuckling to himself with glee Shepard pulled up his omni-tool and tapped out a message to his crew's officers.

'_Meet me at dock 114 ASAP. Temporary ship assignment.'_

Just as Shepard was about to hit the send button his omni-tool began to ring, unsurprisingly it was from Hackett. "Listening."

"Shepard, if what the Geth say is true you need to get the Enterprise out of there, I'm assigning the Tokyo, Ghrian _(Traditional Irish for 'Sun')_and Skala _(Slovak for 'Rock')_ to escort her away,If what you claim about her abilities are true she is a vital asset we cannot lose in battle. I can also assign the Nymph to your service for now if you wish but from my understanding the Geth seem to have given you a ship of your own, it is your call commander."

Shepard thought about this for a short time, the advantage of a Geth dreadnought was huge, it had shields as strong as the Reapers, came with armour thicker than anything the alliance could offer and guns with enough power to do serious damage to anything that moved. The downside was rather obvious, the Ship was Geth so it wasn't designed for biologicals, sure it may have the ability to house an atmosphere but where was he going to sleep? Where was he going to prepare hot food? And a ship over a kilometer long was also going to be one empty place with only a few crew mates, but right now the commander needed the biggest guns at his disposal and the Nymph, a vessel similar in size to the Normandy and without any of its upgrades simply didn't cut it, especially if that Borg vessel decided to come out and play. "Sorry Admiral but I could do alot with a Geth dreadnought, atleast until my girl is back on her feet."

"Understood. Shepard, I have sent some co-ordinates to your omni-tool, once you're on that geth ship make haste with the Enterprise."

/.../

Jeff pointed to the Geth dreadnought docked. "Shepard, please tell me this is a joke." Shepard didn't respond as he passed the pilot. "This isn't funny."

Ashley approached and stood next to Jeff. "Unfortunately I don't think this is a joke."

Shepard, satisfying his need to give the Geth ship one hard and long look over turned back to his bickering crew mates. "We have orders from the top. We're manning this ship and this is the last I am going to hear of it, understood?" There was a few solemn nods. "Excellent, now man up and get on board."

As the crew moaned and picked up their bags numerous Geth Prime units disembarked from the vessel, each carrying some tools or bag of materials, while it did cause a few scares and raised rifles from the dock officials not one bullet was fired. Stopping just infront of the Commander one of the Prime units spoke. "Shepard Commander, we ask permission to assist in SR-2 Normandy repairs."

Shepard nodded, he could do with all the help in the world right now. Turning around to his crew he picked Ashley out of the crowd. "Ash, get these prime units to the Normandy and be back here ASAP, understood?"

Ashley give a hesitant nod before taking charge of the Geth units.

Eventually after Ashley returned and all the crew had embarked the dreadnought Shepard began to seal the ships air lock, Tali by his side. "I'm curious Shepard, it is not usual Geth behaviour for them to give one of their ships away, and I fear this could be masking some ulterior motive."

"I know what you mean but as of this second we don't have the luxury to worry about that."

"I hope we don't live to regret this Shepard."

The man nodded. "As do I but the Geth are our allies in this war, I guess it's time to put some trust in them."

/.../

Jeff scratched his head as he tried to make heads and tails of the Geth's ship controls, they were like nothing he had ever seen before. A ship could move in any 3 dimensions, that was up and down, backwards and forwards, left and right, but apparently the Geth had 6 dimensions, what the other three were he had no idea, time, speed and goopeldygock maybe? Eitherway Jeff hated to admit it, but he was out of his league. "Commander, I have no idea how to fly this thing, and I hate to say it being a man and all, but I might need the manual."

Shepard looked up from a screen the Geth had set up for him, showing the entire battlefield in as much detail as every connected Geth ship could give, hell it was so detailed it even pointed out pieces of debris as small as a cricket ball. "There must be a billion Geth on this ship, shout and maybe a platform will come running to show you how it's done." When Shepard looked back to his screen he noticed that something had changed, instead of the normal bluey green colour it had changed to a bright blue. It took him a second or two to figure out what had happened. "Jeff, you might want to start shouting pretty loud right about now."

Jeff looked around to see if there was any access point he could interface with the Geth, however an approaching Prime unit was his salvation.

/.../

Picard felt a shiver run down his spine as the view screen focussed on the Reaper fleet that just dropped out of the Relay, they looked like nothing he had ever seen and they looked horrific. "Red Alert, Geordie, how are repairs coming?."

It took Geordie a moment to drop the tool he was working with and reply to the Captain. "Not well, the rear phaser bank is barely operational, I've only managed to replace about half the inductors for the primary shields and don't even ask about the energy distribution systems."

"What about engines?"

"I can give you impulse now, but we had to disengage the warp core while we worked on the energy distribution system."

The captain rubbed his forehead. "I need them working now Geordie."

"I can have the core re-engaged in five."

Once the conversation between the Captain and Engineer came to a close Worf spoke up. "Captain, I am counting 68... 76...77... 79 Reaper vessels. Shields and Weapons are charged."

After Worf's statement the communications officer spoke up. "Captain, we are being hailed by the Geth vessel."

"On screen."

A second later Commander Shepards face popped up in crystal clear clarity on the view screen. "Captain, we need to get you and your vessel out of here ASAP. We have intel suggesting the Reapers are here for your vessel."

"Captain, the Geth fleet has engaged the Reaper forces."

Hearing Worfs update on the conflict Shepard looked down to his view of the battle, sure enough the Geth fleet and numerous other vessels from the varying millilitres had started to fire upon the Reapers who had taken a formation known as 'the bullet train', a formation that was particularly effective at breaking straight through enemy fleets. "Look captain, I know your ship is technologically superior but with enough ants even an elephant can be subdued. Every other ship here is going to remain and fight, we need you and your ship out of here."

The Captain thought about this some before nodding and turning to his helmsman. "That might be a struggle, my Warp core is currently disengaged and won't be operational for another five minutes."

"Right, I'm sending you some co-ordinates now as to where we know is safe, we will box you in till your operational, just start heading on what ever power you do have now."

"Captain, the Reaper fleet has broken through the Geth's formation, they are on a direct intercept course ETA 3 minutes 41."

/.../

It only took the 3 alliance dreadnoughts and one Geth vessel a few seconds to get into formation around the Enterprise and start to direct it away from the citadel which was currently closing its arms, and it didn't even take the Reaper forces the better part of a millionth of a second to change direction so that they intercepted. By the time the small fleet of vessels began to move Worf updated Picard on the battle again. "The Alliance and Asari fleets are engaging."

Shepard sighed as he looked at the view screen, despite all the fire directed at the Reapers they were taking very little damage with thanks to their formation, while the friendly fleets were getting hit pretty hard. After a good few long seconds Shepard managed to form an idea. "Captain, could you transport me or an object onto one of the Reaper ships?"

Riker shook his head. "There is some sort of interference around their ships, it could be shields."

Shepard knew from his few encounters with the Reapers that many of them did have shields. "What if we get them down?"

Picard turned to Worf, expecting him to know the answer. "If its the cause of the interference then yes, we could beam a torpedo over."

That was all Shepard needed to hear, after giving the call for every ship to focus fire on the front Reaper it didn't take long for its shields to fall, especially with the Destiny Ascension giving it all it had. "It's all yours now Captain."

Picard give Worf a quick nod. "One Quantum Torpedo away."

It took the better part of ten seconds before it blew, and while the Reaper took visible damage it somehow managed to continue. "Two this time." After another ten seconds the Reaper vessel disintegrated, breaking the bullet formation up as each Reaper attempted to miss its comrade's carcass.

Shepard couldn't help but pump his arm. With their formation broken their soft spots were temporarily forced visible, meaning the Reapers shields took a heavy hit before they could once more adapt to the loss of a vessel and resume their formation. "We have another customer, let's do the same again."

They managed to destroy thirteen more Reapers before a Geth Alarm rang and the Reapers began firing at the ships protecting the Enterprise. "How long till..."

Data spoke the instant he felt he knew what the commander was going to ask, . "94 seconds." Shepard looked worryingly down to his view screen, Geth shields were some of the strongest in the galaxy, but to hold off 66 Reapers for 94 plus seconds?

Meanwhile with all the data gathered from the current battle Worf had managed to do some calculations regarding the Reapers weapons. "Captain, I have analysed the Reapers weapons, we will not be able to sustain such an attack for long."

In the time that it took Picard to turn to his Security officer the shields on the Tokyo fell. "How long is long?"

"34-36 hits max." As Worf replied the Tokyo broke formation, the reaper fire had broken through its armour and inflicted critical damage to its engine, threatening a severe containment breach of its eezo engine.

With the Tokyo no longer protecting the Enterprise the Reapers had a clear shot upon the Enterprise, and they took this opportunity to break their own formation so that they could fire as many of their weapons as possible at her, meaning it would be little to no time till its shields fell.

After sustaining a few seconds of the heavy attack Worf had bad news, despite their superior technology shields had failed. "Captain, shields have failed."

Shepard hit the console infront of him in despair. He NEEDED that ship. In his fit of rage the commander missed something important, the Reapers had stopped firing their main cannons the instant the Enterprises shields had fallen and were now dispatching raiders, incredibly fast transport ships capable of burning through even the most resistive of hulls. Looking up he addressed the Geth prime assisting Jeff. "Geth unit, can we somehow share our shields with the Enterprise."

The prime unit turned its sensory eye from its console but maintained control of the ship, using something humans would call muscle memory to fly the vessel blind. "Negative Shepard Commander. Our own barriers are at 12.29%."

"Dami..." Shepard had looked back to his view screen and noticed the Reapers change of tactic. With the Reapers lack of fire and the raiders it was obvious the Reapers wanted the Enterprise intact and were not willing to risk firing at the three remaining dreadnoughts escorting it away. "...Jeff, will those raiders catch.."

Jeff anticipated this request. "Yes!"

"Shit, use us like a fly swatter and hit into as many of them as you can. Picard, I will leave the few that get through to you and the other vessels."

Picard swallowed, the raiders were vast in number, with the damaged rear phasers Worf wouldn't even be able to fire quickly enough to dispatch a tenth of them before his ship would be surrounded, even if these raiders only took 1 hit to be destroyed. "Worf, do they have shields?"

"No."

Picard rubbed his jaw as he thought. "Then set torpedo's to work like air burst shells, timers at 2 seconds, fire the second they pass the Commanders vessel."

"Captain, I must warn you that at this range a Quantum torpedo will likely cause damage to our hull, and the escort vessels."

Shepard looked up and to Data through the communication terminal set up. "And what do you think the Reapers will do if they get on your vessel? Do it."

Picard agreed. "Worf, do as instructed."

It did not take long for the Raiders to catch the ships retreating from the battle, and despite Jeffs best attempts at swatting them more than ample got through, but combined with the Enterprises's 'air bust' torpedos and phasers 99.9% of them was destroyed, only 3 managed to reach the Enterprise unscathed and burn their way into its hull.

"How long till.."

"...8 seconds,5,4,3,2..."

Just before the enterprise and three escorting vessels hit FTL the Enterprise's computer sounded a warning. "Warning, intruders detected."

/.../

**Am I the only one who ever wondered why we didn't get to see even a snippet of a cinematic of the Reapers taking control of the Citadel? Yes the Normandy and team weren't there to witness it, but space battles and all! I mean an actual space battle with big ships firing big ass weapons! To be honest I was more disappointed at that fact than the actual 'end' of ME3 lol.**

**Anyway, cheers for reading and all the other good stuff!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys, sorry its been so long but life happened. Anyway, a special thanks needs to go to FlameRaven for this chapter, without who this chapter would have been a giant mess (Or more so than it is).**

**Oh and if any of you guys spot errors in my work or plot holes or what not please do not hesitate to leave me a review scathing me for it, I'm more than happy to fix whats wrong!**

The blinding light and incredible sound produced as two of the three raiders burned its way through the hull was enough that for the most part, the entirety of the bridge crew felt like they had just witnessed a flash bang grenade explode up close, leaving them defenceless against the swarm of reaper ground troops that was let loose from the Raiders. By the time Picard had managed to recover slightly he was being forced to his knees by a powerful three pronged hand, looking around, his sight still mostly somewhat blurry and white washed, he noticed a few dead crewman that he couldn't immediately identify due to his current prediciment, a motionless Data, and alot of alien... monsters, for the lack of a better word, holding the rest of the bridge crew at gun point.

By the time he could swallow some toxic tasting flem that had built up in the back of his throat Riker was forced to his knee's besides him, a grotesque beast holding a gun to his head. Wanting to end this now Picard swallowed the flem and spoke. "Se..."

Picard suddenly found that a hand had come around his mouth stopping him from talking, while a grotesque beast that appeared to be burning red hot made its presence known, coming from behind it stood right in front of him and looked him in the eyes. "Picard, you are an outside factor inducing chaos. You have not evolved along the desired path."

The hand keeping Picards mouth shut released its grip allowing the captain to talk, but remained nearby for future use. "Are you a Reaper?" Picard needed to know what he was talking with.

"Reaper, a label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what you chose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are."

Picard took the chance to look around for any advantage he could utilise before giving his response. "Why are you at war with the people of this galaxy?"

"My kind transcends your very understanding. You could not grasp our reasoning."

Riker tried to speak, but his mouth was also being held shut. The grotesque burning reaper turned to him and the second it made eye contact the hand holding his mouth shut loosened. "Then help us to understand, and we can bring this war to an end."

"Your mind is small and your outlook smaller. You could not fathom our logic no more than an insect a humans."

"Then what do you want with my ship?" Picard could guess, but any additional information this thing could give would be useful.

"You have not developed along the desired path, you are an outside factor we have not anticipated in the equation."

Picard could hear Worf somewhat struggling behind him but the man was quickly silenced, by what means Picard was uncertain. "What are you going to do with my crew?"

The burning beast was silent for a short duration as it pondered the question, yes it could kill them with just a mere thought, but ultimately that would not be beneficial to the end goal of this mission, which had so far cost 13 Reaper brethren their lives. "Cooperate and your crew will be left unharmed as they become our servants, protest and you will witness horrors beyond your wildest imaginations."

"Servants? Why don't you just say slaves?"

Riker regretted the comment immediately as a gun shot rang out from behind, the blood stream that started to flow through Picards knees was a testament to the Reaper actions. "Your immediate actions define your future. Unlock your computer data banks."

Both Riker and Picard knew that to give the Reapers the data they desired was to hand the war to the Reapers on a golden platter.

/.../

Geordie shook his head. "Too risky, in the time it takes to beam them off they could kill the entire bridge crew."

It had taken a small time before the Engineering crew had realised the bridge was now being held at gun point, the first raider to burn its way into the Enterprise served as a decoy, something to distract the crew while the remaining two raiders hit the bridge. Beaming the first raiders occupants into outter space was as easy as hitting a big red button, but getting the Reaper troops off the bridge with the officers alive was another story.

"What if we beam into the captains office and lead the assault from there? Then while they are distracted we attack from the remaining vectors, them being the turbo lift and the tubes?"

The highest ranking security officer after Worf nodded his head at the idea. "It will be risky but I think we can do it."

That was what Geordie liked to hear. "Excellent. Get your men ready."

Just as Geordie was about to turn back around to the next highest commanding officer at his disposal a engineer from the opposite direction called his name. "Geordie, the central computer is acting up."

The chief engineer made his way over to the computer which the engineer was working, taking a quick inspection he got a sickly feeling in his stomach. "They must have managed to get a virus in before we locked the bridge out." There was very little time to waste, that virus could be doing anything to their systems. After ordering the security officer to full fill his assignment he refocussed entirely on the computer.

Geordie only required one look at the virus source code to know he was out of his league, without Data's help he had no options to combat the Virus before it got what ever it was after, grimacing he ordered the Enterprise to be crippled by shutting down the main computer. Just before Geordie could give the authorisation code for the computer to be shut down he was hailed by a panicked member of the security team dispatched to rid the ship of its intruders.

/.../

With the battle now over for them most of the Normandy crew had huddled around the Geth battle screen that Shepard had previously lorded over, hoping to watch the battle that was still being waged with the Reapers, with every destroyed reaper there was a thunderous roar of cheering, and with every destroyed vessel fighting the Reapers there was a muted sob or cry. Shepard however couldn't force himself to watch any more of the slaughter, he knew that getting the Enterprise out of danger was for the greater good yet he couldn't shake the feeling that he and this Geth Dreadnought should still be there and thick in the fight. Sighing he rested his head on a cold metal bunk head, hoping the cold material could help calm his thumping headache.

"Shepard Commander?"

The biotic didn't turn to face the geth platform that had called his name as he replied. "What now?".

"You are being summoned by NCC-1701-E Enterprise."

"Summoned huh?"

"To be hailed, called, requested for audience..."

Shepard wafted the Geth unit off. "Yeah yeah, I know what it means. What do they want?"

"To converse with Shepard Commander."

After a deep breath the commander pushed himself up and was escorted to a nearby terminal to take the call, the caller was not someone Shepard had been introduced to. "Commander Shepard talking."

"Commander Shepard, are you familiar with Reaper ground forces?"

Shepard pulled a hand down his face. "Intimately. How many got on board?"

"Too many. We have tried to eliminate them but we are having trouble."

"Can't you use that transporter thingy to get them off?"

"Not without risking the bridge crews life, in the few seconds it takes to transport the invaders off they could easily fire a shot or two."

The commander sighed, this day was getting better and better. "So you are wanting a hand."

The unknown crewman nodded. "If you wouldn't mind."

"You want to drop out of warp or whatever you guys call it and I'll come over with a team."

"We can transport you over as we move."

That was all Shepard needed to know, turning around to the crowd hovering over the battle screen Shepard cleared his throat. "Wrex, Garrus, Vega, Ashley, Tali and you Geth Prime unit thingy, kit up, shotguns and smg's." There was a loud grunt from Wrex, an equally loud "Ooh Rah" from James and a whole assortment of beeps and bloops from the Geth unit, probably protesting the Commander ordering it about as if it was under his command but the Commander didn't listen to any complaints it may or may not have had.

/.../

Geordie had beamed the commander of the Normandy and his small team directly to Engineering. "Commander Shepard?"

It took the commander a few moments to get used to his bearings before turning, it would take a while for him to get used to the transporter system yet. "Unknown Enterprise crew member."

"Sorry, It's lieutenant Commander Geordie LaForge." Geordie held a hand out towards the commander in greeting, the commander took the hand and give a brief shake.

"Lets not beat around the bush, where's your problem?"

The Enterprises's chief engineer took the Commander and his team over to a near by computer terminal that was powered by the Computer designated for engineering only, and so was isolated from the main computer that ran the rest of the ship. "The Reaper ground forces have our crew at gunpoint here." Geordie physically touched the display to show the location of the bridge. "There is 3 points of access, we can beam you into the Captains office, this is the best bet as you will have the most cover, or you can go up the tubro lift but don't expect any cover that way, and then there is the Jeffrey tubes, problem there is that by the time you crawl out you will probably be picked off."

Shepard cocked his head slightly as he thought. "How did the Reapers get on the bridge?"

"The Raider burned its way in."

Shepard nodded once as he formed an idea. "Then you missed a fourth access point. Why can't we come in from the hull?"

That was something Geordie hadn't thought of, partially due to the fact Federation EVA _(ExtraVehicular Activity)_ suits were clumsy and not the best for combat, unlike the hard suits donned by Shepard and crew. "It's possible, but we would have to drop out of warp and you would have to find a way through the Raiders ships as they have lodged themselves into the hull. Then we would need to make some changes to emergency shielding protocols in place to protect the bridge crew from exposure to a vacuum, but it's doable." The fact the Raiders had become lodged could prove to be problematic, but they were not the strongest of vessels and a shape charge hopefully would have enough of kick to put a sizeable hole in the vessel, or so Shepard could only hope.

Shepard turned to the Geth platform. "Any reapers on long range scanners? Did they follow us once we hit FTL?" The Geth Platform give a nearly instant 'no' allowing Shepard to finalise his plan of attack. "Excellent. Geordie, do you know of anyone who saw what we are going up against?"

The engineer nodded before calling over a man with some blood splattered on his uniform. "This is Dale Bush, he is the currently the highest security officer after Lt Cmmdr Worf, and he participated in the failed attempt to free the bridge crew earlier."

Shepard give a brief nod before turning to the security officer. "What forces did you see?"

From the descriptions given Shepard concluded that there was at least 2 Brutes, 3 Ravengers, a good few Maruarders and Husks and nearly 10 Banshee's, one of which apparently glowed a bright orange and had one hell of a biotic punch. "That amount of Banshee's is an issue, and if my suspicions are correct about the orange one then getting your captain out alive is going to be a chow." Shepard sighed as he realised Geordie probably had no idea what the banshee's were if his facial expressions were in correlation to his thoughts. "Banshee's are the Reaper heavy hitters, when they want to eliminate light ground forces they send husks and marauders, when they want to eliminate heavy units they send Brutes and Ravangers, but when they want eliminate someone like me, or get a job done and have an assurance it will be complete they send Banshee's along with the rest. So I need you to understand when I say getting your bridge crew out alive is going to be a hell of a task." After explaining the Commander stared at the map for a short time longer deep in thought before turning back to Laforge. "Okay I have a new plan, how fast could you do that transporty thing to your crew members? Under 120 seconds? And could you disable artificial gravity on the bridge?"

"Sure, easy enough."

Shepard brought a hand up to rub his jaw in thought. "Right, well my plan is were going to space the bridge by detonating a raider, when we breach I need you to deactivate gravity and when your crew are blown out you can do your work. A human can survive up to 180 seconds in a vacuum before they pass the point of no return so your going to have to work fast. You may wish to inform your doctor to receive patients with the Bends."

Geordie looked at the map of the enterprise a few seconds before nodding, 'spacing' the bridge would require a few changes to protocols, most notably to the emergency shielding. "Sounds good, I'll inform the Doctor."

"Great." Shepard turned to his squad. "Wrex, Garrus, you two take the Elevator. Ashley, Vega, you have the Captains office, me Tali and the Prime unit will come from the hull. When we breach your going to experience winds which will knock you over and drag you along, so take cover wherever you can. I don't expect all of the Reaper forces or Enterprise crew to be sucked out, so when you feel like you can stand on your own do so, and start to do what's required. Vega, Wrex, no pellet rounds, as useful as they may be in this environment we can't have stray bullets ricocheting around. Finally, if you see a Banshee about to jump hit it with as much led as you can spare, we can't have those things getting up close and personal."

The commander turned back to the Engineer. "Were ready when you are."

/.../

/.../

As Tali placed the charges on the Raider vessel Shepard was forced to kneel and support his head through his hard suit, his head had been giving him nothing but grief over the last hour or so, it felt like something was drilling in to his skull with a machine that mixed the function of jack hammer and high powered drill in one. The Commander had no idea what was causing the pain but he knew he needed it checked out, sooner rather than later.

"Shepard?"

Shepard looked up from his knelled position. "Charges placed?"

Tali cocked her head to her side as she replied. "Are you okay?"

"Yea, just a bitch of head ache. Are the charges in place?"

"Yes and the elevator crew are reporting ready!"

"Oh." Shepard pushed his helmet up and down as much as he could to scratch a small spot on his forehead. "Captains office team, you ready?"

It was Williams who give the response. "Just give the word commander."

With all teams reported in and accounted for Shepard contacted the Cheif engineer once more. "Are your modifications to the emergency shields in place?"

"Sure are."

"Fantastic. Breaching in 10, 9, 8,7,6, f ,4,3,2,1." As Shepard pushed the button causing an explosion powerful enough to dislodge a raider and let the bridge vent into outer space Geordie turned off emergency shielding and artificial gravity.

/.../

Shepard breached the hole he created as soon as the wind died out, the blast did the required trick, many of the Reaper forces had been blown straight out of the ship, only a few Banshee's and one Brute managed to stay inside, however his first task was not to eliminate the Reapers, but secure any Federation crewman long enough so that they could be beamed out. Looking around Shepard found Riker and Picard were being held by two Banshees, without thinking about it the man let loose a Shock wave, with no artificial gravity holding people without MAG shoes to the floor, the Reapers and VIP's separated from one another and drifted in various directions. Just as Shepard was about to reach the Captain he felt a powerful force pull him back, and before he knew it he was starring into the face of one brightly glowing Banshee.

"Shep, focus on it, I've got the Captain."

Shepard quickly glanced to Garrus before turning back to the Banshee which was lifting him off his feat and into the air by his neck, the grotesque Banshee over powering the magnets keeping him on the floor as if they weren't there.

Shepard tried to break free, he tried hitting its arm to break its hold, he tried out right shooting it in the face, but with Harbingers improvements the Banshee didn't even flinch. Shepard needed muscle, and alot of it. "WREX!" The man could only croak, the armour protecting his neck was quickly buckling under the Banshee's grip. The commander didn't get all of the Krogans response, only hearing something along the lines of a Brute being in the way.

After another round from a heavy pistol did nothing Shepard resorted to a last measure, pulling a grenade out of a pocket he pulled the pin, the Reaper simply dislodged the grenade out of his hand and dispatched of it, before starting to walk towards the hull breach as if gravity was still active. Curiously the Reaper dropped him to his knees just before the hole, it easily could have thrown him into outer space and allow him to be spaced for a second time.

With EDI still on the citadel and not capable of providing electronic defences against the Reapers, the Harbinger controlled banshee did not take long to hack the Commanders local area communication system, something used for talking to crew in close proximity. "Commander Shepard, instruct the escorting vessels to destroy this ship, in return we shall immortalise your species."

Shepard chuckled as he attempted to get his breath back, and only replied when he felt like he had the ability to do so. "You mean like the Collectors? No thanks."

Before the harbinger Reaper could reply Garrus made his voice heard. "All VIP's accounted for. Need a hand Shepard?"

"Not yet. Are we all accounted for?"

There was a silence before Wrex's booming voice was heard. "Ashley took a rouge grenade to the face."

With the news that the entire bridge crew was accounted for the Harbinger Reaper grasped onto Shepard and spun a defensive barrier around them, in the time it would take for Shepard to be beamed out by what ever technology this alien ship had, there was more than enough time for the killing blow to be landed.

The Banshee leaned forward so its face was mere inches from Shepard's. "You fight to exist, yet when offered salvation from guaranteed extinction you deny."

Shepard snorted at the response from the Reaper.. "I wouldn't call being turned into a husk Salvation. Also what makes you think your going to win this war?"

The Reaper looked insulted, standing back up from its leaned over position it turned to the Prime. "Geth unit, destroy this vessel and we will uplift your species sentience so you may become our servants." The Geth unit just made some bloops and beeps, no response was given.

With the Reaper turned, Shepard cocked his head slightly as he debated about a certain action, eventually the urge got too great. Leaning onto his back Shepard positioned his legs so that when he kicked out, his feet would force the Reapers knees from under it, hopefully collapsing it on the floor. When he felt Ready Shepard kicked out as hard as he could, the Reaper not expecting the attack fell backwards. With the Reaper now ontop of him Shepard wrapped his arms around its head, locking it in a vice grip, with the Reapers extra strength he couldn't hold the flailing creature for long.

The remaining Normandy members took this moment to start blasting the barrier erected by the Harbinger controlled Banshee, with Shepard keeping it distracted the Barrier didn't take long to fall and within seconds Wrex was hauling the Banshee up and launching it out of the ship, dusting his hands off the Krogan looked downwards, however his initial joy of spacing a Banshee deflated, Shepard's helmet had been cracked and deformed, and the Commander now lay motionless on the floor.

/.../

**Meanwhile in the Borg Collective mind.**

'Technological distinctiveness has been added to our own. Advanced Relay technology has been acquired. Universe designated 017 evaluated, suitable for assimilation. Start construction of multi-verse Transmitter. Construction resource's required...'

/.../

/.../

/.../

**Fun fact, they sometimes miss saying 'five' in count downs to explosions or what ever because it sounds too much like 'fire' Thus the 'f' instead of '5' during Sheps count down.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay, was meant to upload this the other day but FF servers decided to go AWOL so it's been delayed a little. Anyway I realise the last few chapters have been a few weeks from one another so I'm going to start to put a small summary at the start of each chapter to remind you guys of the important stuff in last chap. **

**I also want to make it clear here, I know the Enterprise is more technologically advanced than the Reapers, but in my mind I personally believe the Reapers have a computer which would put the Enterprises' computer to shame, my arguments for this is that they are AI that are capable of controlling numerous (Possibly millions) of biloigicals brains instantaneously, crack the Geth coding and rewrite them, all at the same time as being a formidable force capable of taking over the galaxy, not to mention the computer has had millions of years to advance itself. I know one or two of you would disagree, but you have my arguments now prove me wrong and I will be happy to do something about it. Anywho less of me.**

**/.../**

_Last time on TUKM_

_The Raiders burned into the Enterprise and took the Bridge crew hostage while they injected a virus in to the E's computer, after a failed attempt by the E's security officers to free the bridge Shepard was recruited to help rid the Reapers, in his attempt Ashley was killed and he was knocked unconscious while trying to kill the Harbinger Banshee, but the task to free the remaining Bridge crew was mostly successful. _

**/.../**

**Next day, Location unknown - Crucible.**

Crusher scowled slightly as she tried to work out what her latest recordings of Shepards' brain activity revealed, while the man had normal brain patterns most of the time, every so often there are odd spikes of activity in the Cerebrum and inconsistencies in the natural brain pattens.

Chakwas had a small idea what it was and she didn't like the idea of it at all. "Indoctrination."

Crusher looked up from the data. "Sorry?"

"I would bet my bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy, the cerebrum is regarded as the part of the brain that thinks and the amount of time Shepard has been around the Reapers it is amazing he is still able to think for himself at all."

The Enterprises doctor took a quick draw from a cup of coffee. "Well he should still be himself, the spikes occur every 27ms, not nearly often enough for it to control the man."

Chakwas shook her head. "And how long till it gets to that critical point? All of our current studies indicate its not long."

"Hopefully never, we have had a few run ins with mind controlling species and technology, I believe we should be able to craft something to stop it from taking over."

That was some of the best news Chakwas thought she had ever heard. "Then I suggest we keep him under till we have the solution." There was a small sound come from one of the many other beds, looking over it appeared as if Picard was awaking. Crusher quickly nodded her agreement before making her way over to the waking crewman.

Picard awoke and pushed himself up and onto his elbows, Crusher was by his side almost immediately and running some scans. The captain found his throat felt like it was on fire, he had no idea what had happened to it but could only guess it was some side effect of being effectively spaced. "Report Doctor."

Crusher replied while running her scans. "You have just recovered from severe decompression sickness."

"Not me, my crew."

Crusher sighed before folding away her medical device and pocketing it. "14 have lost their lives, including Deanna Troi and helmsman Iche. Lt Cmmdr Worf had a fractured skull and severe decompression sickness like yourself but he should be up and active later today, William Riker has been moved to ICU but I believe he will make a full recovery, Data is currently being looked at by the Engineering crew and some Geth now."

Picard sighed heavily at the loss of life as he moved himself to sit on the edge of the bed. "What of the ship?"

"We are safe and in orbit around a heavily guarded space station."

That was good news, standing from the Bed Picard looked around the medical bay for his things. "Picard?" Crusher waited for the man to turn around and face her. "I don't want to order you to bed rest considering our situation, but I will tell you to take it slow."

The man give a sombre nod before starting towards the med bays doors. "Understood doctor, I want a full report as soon as its ready."

Just as Picard left the med-bay Garrus walked in. "Docs, Hackett is demanding an update."

Crusher and Chakwas looked at one another before the Normandy's medical officer give the Turian a response. "Physically he is fine, mentally is another question." Chakwas sighed, Hackett would not take that for an answer. "Tell the Admiral that he will be on his feet soon."

The Turian flared his mandibles in acknowledgement before asking another question. "How is Grunt?" Despite Turians and Krogan being some of the fiercest rivals in the galaxy the two had become some what friends over the last year, going on regular suicide mission tended to end stupid grudges.

Karin wafted the Turian over before leading him to a bed occupied by one unconscious unusually white Krogan and guarded by an armed security officer. "His Krogan immune system is fighting hard but its going to be a close call."

Garrus nodded before turning to leave the room, Grunt would pull through, the man had no doubts about it.

/.../

**8 hours later.**

Shepard quickly sat up, startled, looking around the darkened room he didn't recognise his whereabouts, but he could make a good guess. Jumping down from the bed he looked around for his kit but he only found his dog tags and omni-tool. Just as he was slipping the omni-tool over his wrist the lights in the room increased in luminosity and Crusher walked in, she was momentarily startled by the commander, she had given him enough sedatives to keep him under for at least two days while she made sure the effects of indoctrination were eliminated by her fix, yet here he was perfectly concious, maybe his cybernetics had something to do with it? "Commander?"

The SpecTRe turned to the medical officer. "Hello?"

Crusher raised a brow before shaking her head and making her way over to the man. "How do you feel?"

The Commander tilted his head slightly, the head ache that troubled him over the last few days had perished and he had no pains or troubles that he could feel. "Fine, what was I in here for?" His memory of the raid on the bridge was a little hazy.

"A hit to your head." replied Crusher.

While Crusher spoke the truth the commander could tell from her reactions that there may be more to it. "That's it?"

There was a slight pause before Beverly shook her head. "No, we also found signs you were indoctrinated."

Shepard frowned at this allegation. "I would have thought my recent actions would have proven otherwise? Fighting Harbinger and all."

Crusher bobbed her head. "True, however we only found initial signs of indoctrination, not yet enough to control your actions or thoughts."

"Well shit." The man scratched the back of his neck in thought. "So, am I safe to be around or what?"

Crusher didn't yet know. "Sit." She gestured towards his bed as she pulled out a medical device from a storage bay nearby. "Over my years I have been in contact with numerous species that have mind control abilities, so I have managed to use that experience to develop a sort of block. After administrating this block I have been monitoring your brain activity over the last few hours, when unconscious you are safe, but when you are up and active? I am not yet sure. Put this on your forehead." Beverly passed him a small scanning device before attending a terminal the device was wirelessly linked to. After a few minutes she nodded to herself, no odd activity as of yet. "Well, I don't detect anything unusual unlike earlier, but I want you to come for a check up in an hours time."

/.../

**14 Hours later, Crucible construction space station.**

After a few more checks from the Enterprise's doctor it became evident that any signs of indoctrination had been eliminated, Shepard was once more safe to continue his duties, and boy did he have alot to catch up with. With thanks to the Geth the Normandy was now space worthy, requiring only weapons, armour and the interior to be replaced or repaired, the Reaper fleet that invaded the Citadels home system was vanquished at the great cost of nearly a 1/3rd of the fleet that was supposed to help liberate Earth, and Thessia had eventually become a target for the Reapers not two hours ago, it was due to this very fact that Shepard guessed he had been called for by the Asari Councillor.

"Shepard, I understand we have not seen eye to eye over the last few years, yet current events are forcing my hand. There is a beacon on Thessia and we believe it may house the information required to build the catalyst."

The SpecTRe shook his head as he stood up and looked out the nearest window. "All this time it was possibly under your nose."

Tevos tried to explain. "The Matriarchs..."

"Just stop. I don't need to hear excuses as to why you hid this information for so long, just point to where I need to go."

The councillor kept silent as she transferred the details to his omni-tool despite wanting to protest the way the human responded.

/.../

**Enterprise.**

Geordie was feeling exhausted as he slumped down into a chair in the mess hall, Picard was not an easily angered man but the death and injury of numerous bridge crew, of which a good few were close friends, had hit him hard and in his anger at the Reapers the Enterprise was gearing its self for war, and many of those preparations were repairs of the damage made by the raiders, and subtle but time consuming calibrations to weapons and shields for them to be as effective as possible against their newest threat. Geordie felt as if he had been working non stop for the last few days, so this down time was a nice break, so nice in fact the man had closed his eyes as he slumped down in his chair.

"La Forge."

Worf's voice sounded annoyed, opening his eyes the engineer looked to the head of security, he still had an angry red mark across his forehead where the doctor had to fix his scull, but he was fine otherwise. "Yeah, I'm listening, and I take it the Doc let you out early."

Worf handed the man a datapad with a scowl, his reply ignored the fact he had been injured. "I have re-evaluated the scans we took, I believe with these modifications we can gain an additional 12.4% effectiveness of the Torpedoes."

Geordie give the pad a quick glance, he would look into it in more depth later. "Looks good. Actually I've been meaning to speak to you so sit." Worf took a seat opposite Geordie. "I've been going over the virus they injected in the system and its not good news." The Klingon raised a brow. "Our computer systems are good but from what I can deduce from the virus the Reapers injected, they are superior in every way, we can't let them in the system again."

"And what do you suggest we do to stop that?"

The man sighed, he wasn't to sure about that. "The usual procedure would be to implement a stronger fire wall, but we had one of the toughest firewalls in Federation space implemented last time and the code still tore straight through it as if it wasn't there." The engineer rose a hand to his forehead, after so many hours of continuous work it was starting to get hard to focus and think. "I'm going to have to ask the locals for how they stop the Reapers code if they even can, but till then your going to have to be ready to lock the computer down at a moments notice."

"And why haven't you approached the captain with this? Also do you know what they did in our systems yet?"

Geordie shook his head as he raised his hands to show oil and grease covering every inch of his skin. "I've been working on repairs non stop, I haven't even eaten in 10 hours never mind spoken to the Captain in much depth. Can you mention it to him on my behalf? As for what they got or did? I still have no idea and that terrifies me."

The Klingon give a nod in agreement before asking his own question. "Have you made much progress with Data?"

Geordie laughed and shook his head. "Without those Geth..."

"The AI robots?" Questioned Worf.

Geordie give a nod to answer the question. "...we would still be trying to work out what's wrong with him, right now the Geth think he will be back to his old self in a few hours."

"They seem to be a resourceful... species."

"Say that again. Anyhow I've had no sleep since our own universe so I'm off to get some shut eye."

After splitting from the Engineer Worf found the Captain in his office, the man was slumped in his own chair as he read over some information on his computer, Worf would later find out that this information was Federation files relating to Deanna Troi. "What is it?" He sounded irrate but considering the circumstances Worf couldn't blame him. "Geordie asked me to pass on some information, but it can wait."

Picard sighed as he removed his hand from his forehead and looked at his Officer. "Right now anything to distract me is better than nothing. What was it?" After telling the captain Geordies plan the Captain give his authorisation for Geordie to ask the locals for help protecting the computer core. "Anything else?"

Worf give a nod and sigh at the same time as allowing his shoulders to slump some. "I should have spotted the Reaper distraction before I did, I should have acted quicker."

The captain shook his head, he would not hear it. "Worf, you are the finest security Chief I have had the pleasure of serving with, if you failed then so would have the..." Before the captain could finish a Yellow Alert forced the captain on to his feet and to the bridge.

/.../

**Geth Ship**

After reboarding the Geth ship in anticipation for his next mission a Geth unit quickly gained Shepard's attention. "Shepard Commander, we have detected a fleet approaching the Citadel, we do not recognise their energy signature."

"The Borg?"

The Geth eye dilated some before a response was made. "Uncertain."

The SpecTRe pushed past the Geth unit and made his way to the battle screen that was previously used for the battle against the Reapers, soon a few shapes emerged and Shepard felt his stomach turn, the Battle for the citadel was only just beginning.

**/.../**

**/.../**

**My initial intention for this story was to have a much more indoctrinated Shepard, but I decided against it, for the better or worse I'm not yet sure but I do have a plan.**

**Anyway thanks to all those awesome guys/girls who left the reviews or give this story a follow / favourites. And thanks for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9

**_This is a short one, but important stuff happens to make up for that. Anyway I've been poking and prodding this chapter for a while, and I eventually got fed up with it and decided that this version is the one to go out, _(sorry if its not up to my crappy standard)_._**

**_ HaywireEagle: Cheers for that info, should be corrected soon_****_!_ **

** Flameraven, you give me a good idea in one of your reviews a while back, hope you like how I've implemented it.**

_Previously on TUKM:_

_Picard learns of the death of numerous crew members, it is found Shepard was partially indoctrinated, but Crusher managed to free him before he lost himself to the Reapers, Shepard is also told of the Prothean Beacon on Thessia which has now been invaded by Reaper forces, but before he could depart on a mission to retrieve the information stored inside the beacon a small hostile fleet arrived at the citadel_

**Citadel space**

"Order a full retreat."

The second in command of the Destiny Ascension turned around to the Matriarch in charge, a brow raised. "Its just 3 vessels, we should destroy them now."

The Matriarch glanced to the view screen, she agreed with her second in command but she had orders. "We have been given orders for a full retreat by Higher Command, and so we shall retreat."

"What of the Geth, Turians and Humans?"

The other ships had yet to retreat. "They should be receiving their orders now."

"Why run now with our tail between our legs? Two odd looking reapers and that cube shouldn't be a problem for the entire fleet."

The Matriarch sighed as she pondered how much she could reveal about the vessels that Higher Command seem so scared of. "Because we have orders, and those vessels are not what you think they are. Helmsman Geiger, take us 1.5 parsecs, direction 224,000,000, we will observe from there." When the ship arrived at the desired location a few minutes later the bridge of the Ascension simply stared at the view screen, curious as to what the vessels were doing. "So, any guesses as to what they are doing?"

There was a good few shrugs, the odd ships would approach a destroyed or critically damaged vessel that was still to be removed after the Battle for the Citadel, spend a few seconds in its proximity and then move onto another damaged ship, Reaper or allies alike. "Searching for something but what?" Answered one of the science officers on the bridge.

Another officer replied quietly to the science officer. "Technology, precious metals or the data banks of the vessels are my guess."

/.../

**Crucible - unknown location **

Picard rubbed a hand over his jaw, Hackett had forwarded him a video feed of the Borg from one of the damaged but still fully afloat ships in the Citadel region of space. "What are the Borg up to now?" He spoke more to himself than anyone else.

"We were hoping you could tell us."

The captain sighed as he slumped some more down his chair. "They are scanning each vessel and removing anything of value, why they would risk going to such a high risk area to do so however is beyond me, you have little technology I believe they would want."

Hackett sighed before giving a quick nod. "Hold on." The man left the screen while he give an order, suddenly the abandoned alliance ships, of which all of them were far beyond repair, started to self detonate, with only the damaged ship currently forwarding the video feed spared from destruction. "The less we give them the better."

"Agreed." After speaking Hackett looked off screen again before sighing, soon the video feed changed to look towards the Relay where a damaged Volus Bomber had just emerged, one of the Assimilated Reaper's near by approached, scanned the vessel, and then fired something at it, the damaged vessel was obliterated with a single shot, the assimilated Reapers had appeared to have received a hell of an upgrade in the weapons department. After destroying the ship the Reaper spent a considerable amount of time among its remains. "Can you zoom in to the debris field?" When the field was zoomed in it became evident as to why the Reapers destroyed the ship over assimilating it, they were transporting Eezo and other hard to mine materials onto their own vessel, this worried Picard, the materials were being taken to obviously build something, or upgrade something, both of which were not good. "We need to destroy them soon or I fear we will be too late."

Hackett nodded. "I have over 120 ships in the vicinity, can have another 60 or so assigned from this space station to the task, the Asari have a good 60 in a near by orbit and the Turians have something north of 100."

Picard give a nod, with enough ants even an elephant could fall. "We can be in the area in 30 minutes at maximum warp, I would advise waiting till we arrive if you wish to do anything." Hackett give a deep sigh, why did the Borg have to be here now, why not after the war, or years before it so they had the time to replenish their forces? "I would need to encourage my Asari and Turian counterparts to act, but I fear by the time I do that the Borg will be gone."

/.../

**Citadel**

At first EDI thought she had miss heard, but there it was again, it was an incredibly weak electromagnetic signal using old Geth encryption protocols, something she managed to crack with little to no ease with thanks to her extensive knowladge of the old protocols gifted to her by Cerberus during the collector days. Adjusting her still damaged antenna's she tried to listen in. "...mutilated...equation...destruction...transmitter...relm..." The message repeated, this time she got a little more. "My platform has been mutilated... out side of the equation... plan destruction... constructing a transmitter capable... relm, must resolve... at all costs..."

This puzzled EDI, after asking a Geth unit working on the Normandy she confirmed that it was not a Geth unit sending out the signal, so who, or what was? Then it dawned on her, was this a Reaper? Could it be possible that one of the assimilated Reapers was still mentally alive but its body was being forced to act as the Borg wanted? Was this a Reaper trying to warn them of the Borg? After all it not only threatened those they harvest, but themselves too.

After hearing the message three more times she managed to fill in the blanks.

_"My platform has been mutilated and forced to work for an entity known as Borg, they are outside of the equation, they plan chaos and destruction outside of acceptable parameters. Presently they are constructing a transmitter capable of reaching their own realm, must resolve Borg infestation prior to transmitter completion at all costs."_

EDI wanted to contact Shepard and inform him of the message, yet her QEC was still proving to be problematic, so she just had to trust that the Geth would pass a message on, thankfully they did.

It did not take long for her to get a response, and it was not what she expected, she was to try and make contact. Increasing the power to the antenna she replied using the same protocols the original message had. "The Borg are a known entity, identify yourself." No response. She increased the power to the antenna as much as she dared and repeated the message, again she got no response, could the message have been a recording? She hoped not.

It was after her fifth repeat that she got a weak response, once more it took numerous repeats till she received the entire message. "I am Peace Keeper 0073, you are the Enhanced Defence Intelligence of the SR2 Normandy."

Peace keeper 0073? EDI had thought that with Soverign and Harbinger having names, that each individual reaper would also have a unique name meaning something about themselves, turns out this is not the case, however she still had to be sure what she was talking too. "Are you a Reaper?"

Once more it took numerous attempts to get the Reapers response. "Reaper, a label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction, in the end what you chose to call us is irrelevant, we simply are. My time in this space is short, the Borg Entity require purging, I have been forced to use light based communication technology, its reach is limited. My brethren require notification of the severity of the Borg Entity, you must relay my message." After the message EDI just got a few gigabytes of data labelled 'For Harbinger', she could not decipher it, at least not without 52 years and 4 months to work on it.

As soon as she signalled she had the message by broadcasting a quick 'recieved' notification she started to receive the old encrypted signal again. "The Borg are leaving... imperative...plans..." That is all she got before the Borg vessels left the system, Peace Keeper 0073 could only hope she received the last transmitted message and forward the information packet to Harbinger, it did not know if it would get another chance to interact with anything else, the Borg were almost about to work out how to completely remove it from the last few systems it still had access to.

/.../

**Crucible - unknown location, 3 hours later.**

The Councillors, top generals of the respective species navies, Commander Shepard, a Geth platform and Captain Picard was all sat around a large wooden table, and they had an incredibly important decision to make. "It could contain Borg Technology, and we all know what would happen if they got their hands on it."

The Salarian councillor blinked and scratched a horn. "Quite a possibility, would make bad situation terrible."

There was a moment of silence as the rooms occupants looked at one another, puzzled over what to do. Eventually Shepard give a heavy sigh and broke his silence. "Dam right there, but what if the data tells them where to find the Borg? and their weaknesses? They could effectively destroy the Borg without us loosing a single human, Turian, Asari life."

"And if it doesn't?" Queried the Asari councillor.

"Then we build the catalyst faster then the Reapers can upgrade themselves."

"And if the catalyst is as large as the crucible? Could we sustain the war against even deadlier Reapers for another year?"

"Do you seriously still think we will still be in the game in another years time?" Shepards response silenced everyone in attendance, after another period of silence the man continued. "Then this is my suggestion, I go get the catalyst, we find out how long it takes to build, and then we consider the Reaper message."

The people with prior military experience in the room nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me Commander. When do you leave?"

The spectre turned to Hackett. "As soon as I leave this room."

"Understood, then this meeting is over for you, the rest of us have to ponder this Borg Transmitter your AI has warned us of."

Shepard stood and turned for his Geth Dreadnought.

**/.../**

**/.../**

**So, what's the data? Upgrades or genuine data regarding the Borg? Who knows? Anyway Cheers for reading!**

**Also note: A concern was raised over how the Geth are helping to fix Data, this will be explained soon!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Okay, so I'm going to drift slightly from the crappy Star child ending! I think (read as hope) many of you will find this as good news and like my version of the Catalyst super weapon. Also sorry for how long this took to get out, I had a copy but then some files got corrupted somehow and bang, I gotta write it out again, plus I hit the dreaded 'writers block', not knowing how to finish this, but I believe I have a good plan once more. **

** Flameraven,  The Alliance and Reapers have kenetic Barrier to help stop projectile's, and as the Borg have assimilated a few of their vessels now I'm sure they would have discovered their projectile stopping tech, if they have applied it yet to their own ships is another question however. As to if the Reapers can upgrade themselves in space, the people in the ME universe simply don't know what the Reapers are capable of. **

**Last time on UKM**

EDI communicates with an assimilated Reaper, in their conversation she discovers that the Reaper has learned of Borg plans to build a transmitter to talk across universes, the Reaper who is essentially a slave in its own body begs EDI to pass forward a data packet to Harbinger to inform it of the danger they present, but as the data packet is encrypted it is unknown as to what the data packet entails, and so they are unsure if it is wise do as asked, fearing it could be Borg Enhancements. Finally Shepard eventually leaves on his mission to acquire the Prothean VI on Thessia, which is now under Reaper invasion.

**/.../**

The plan was simple, with the Normandy now space worthy and having a repaired hull capable of hiding its heat signature it would be the vessel to take Shepard and his crew to Thessia, while the Geth dreadnought would remain next to the Thessian relay, ready to lend the commander a hand if the still half operational and defenceless Normandy got into a fire fight. Once on Thessia Shepard was to find the data and then bail, hopefully without the reapers even knowing he had landed on the Asari home world. However, sod's law [Murphy's law] unfortunately came into play, the Reaper pawns on the ground were crawling all over the monastery and after defeating them and retrieving the Data the Cerberus Special Operative known as Kai-Leng showed his face and stole the data from the Spectre's grasp. However Cerberus did not plan on the Geth dreadnought waiting at the Relay, and under orders from Shepard the Geth intercepted the vessel as it tried to flee, before storming it and retaking the precious Prothean VI. By the time Shepard re-joined the Geth ship the AI's had managed to coax the VI known as Vendetta back out of some of it's protective firewalls, however the VI was still hesitant in providing any knowledge to the Geth as it could not detect biological life signs and deduce if they were Reaper agents or not.

As Shepard entered the room the VI Prothean moved in his direction before scanning for indoctrination once more. "Indoctrinated presence eliminated, removing security encryption." The program froze momentarily while it removed the last few firewalls allowing it to gain the information so desperately required.

After everything that happened today the Commander was not in a good mood, and so got straight down to business. "What is the Catalyst?"

"The super weapon known as 'crucible' was designed to interface with the governmental vessel this cycle calls 'Citadel'. In order to fire the weapon, the two constructs must be joined. If I am interfaced with your systems, I will aid in the development and deployment of the crucible."

Shepard rubbed his stubble covered jaw. "So we don't need to build anything?"

"No, however the firing of the crucible will destroy every Relay, mass rebuilding and repairs will be required."

This was not news Shepard was expecting. "It will destroy every relay?" The man feared that the Alpha Relay Incident would become the Galaxy relay incidents if this weapon was fired.

"Affirmative."

"So every solar system with a Relay is going to be destroyed?"

The program seemed to buffer for a few seconds as it debated the question. "Uncertain, the scientists who compiled this program could not confirm if the Relay's destruction would cause the host system to be destroyed."

Shepard give a frustrated sigh. "But this will definitely destroy the Reapers?"

"Uncertain, however the destruction of the relays will prevent rapid Reaper Travel, this will ultimately cripple their war effort and buy non-relay systems not yet invaded time to develop new technologies with the aim of eliminating the Reapers."

Shepard slumped down onto a near by crate. "This weapon could potentially kill billions."

"Yes, but it allows for the survival of your species."

Shepard laughed for a minute as he thought about how ruthless this war was. "Was it too much to hope for a kill switch?"

"This weapon could still be a kill switch, but its nature is uncertain."

With a sombre sigh the man stood back up and turned his omni tool on, pulling up Admiral Hacketts email he typed a quick message.

Subject: _CATALYST KNOWN! _

_Catalyst is the Citadel! But much to discuss in person, I will meet you and the fleets at the citadel!"_

_/.../_

Data downloaded himself back into his own body and opened his eyes to a smiling Geordi. "Greetings Lieutenant Commander."

The Chief allowed a relieved sigh to escape his lips. "Data, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice."

"Curious, I have been on away missions longer than my bodies repair took."

Geordie chuckled slightly at the AI's comment. "Only those away missions weren't to the pearly gates."

Data tilted his head. "Pearly gates is a common human metaphor for death..." The AI thought for a couple of seconds. "However I did not die in a sense you would understand."

"You had a hole in your chest and you weren't on up here." Geordie tapped his head. "That is close enough to death for me. Now, you gotta tell me, what was it like being in this Geth Collective."

When the Geth learned of Data's damage they had offered their expertise to help repair the android, Geordie not fully understanding Data's systems enough to make quick repair and Picard not wanting to lose another crewman allowed the Geth to help and so they downloaded Data's conciousness into their collective so that he could help direct them in the repairs, suffice to say with Data's help and the Geth's vast experience in android platforms, no matter how different from Data's, they had his body up and running in next to no time. "I believe the word different would suffice, but I do not know how to summarise the experience in less than 10473 words."

"Well, sounds like something I'm going to have to read up on, but did they treat you well in there?"

With preliminary scans telling Data his bodies systems were fully operational the AI stepped off of the platform where the repairs to his body were made. "I was treated as an honoured guest."

"That was good of them."

Data bobbed his head. "Indeed..." Just after speaking the Yellow Alert siren distracted both men. "I will be on the bridge if you need me."

"And I engineering." Data and Geordie quickly parted ways to man their stations.

When Data arrived at the Bridge Picard was mid conversation with an Alliance Admiral.

"...Moving all fleets to the citadel."

Picard frowned at the move, he could think of no tactical reason as to why the entire armarda and Crucible were being moved to the Citadel. "Very well, but may I request as to why?"

"Meet in the Council Chambers at 0345, everything will be explained there."

When the call ended Picard turned to face Data, the aged captain looked dreadful, he had bags under his eyes and his skin was a slightly paler colour than normal, it was obvious the deaths of Diana and others had effected him badly, but at seeing his old and trusty AI alive and well the man managed to give a small smile.

/.../

Picard looked around the crowded council chambers, there was generals, admirals, scientists and leaders of every species in the room, it appeared as if only 2 People and the Geth knew as to why they were there, eventually Admiral Hackett took to the podium, Shepard by his side. "Comrades, I am glad to eventually come with the news we have all been waiting for since this war started. During a Mission to Thessia Commander Shepard has found reliable information informing us of what the Catalyst is." There was a moment of silence as the news sunk in but then the room became a deafening roar as people began asking, or more like demanding answers. Hackett tried to regain control but it eventually took Shepard firing his hand cannon in the air to regain order. "There is good news, and there is bad. As Shepard discovered this information I am allowing him to explain."

Hackett took a step back allowing Shepard to step forward and into the lime light. "The Catalyst is the Citadel, with the help of a Prothean VI we know how to dock the weapon and how to fire it." There was a round of applause. "However there is a catch. When the weapon fires it will destroy every relay, it is unknown if the Relay's will take out the systems linked to them." The room fell into a stunned silence. "It is also unknown if the weapon will actively target Reapers and destroy them, or if it is just designed to detonate the relays."

After Shepard stopped speaking there was a moment of silence, a Salarian eventually breaking it. "Then all your efforts were for nothing."

Shepard turned to the Salarian Dalatrass. "No, if we use the weapon the Reapers won't be able to use the relays to travel, granting non-relay system's the hundreds of years required for the Reapers to arrive the time to develop further technologies to defeat the Reapers, also in the blasts we will destroy tens of thousands of their ships, if not more."

"The ruthless calculus of war, sacrifice billions for the possibility that a handful may survive." The Turian Primark said what everyone was thinking.

The spectre on the podium nodded. "Unfortunately this is the cold decision we face. For the systems not yet invaded you can move the relay to a safe location, but if we try to move the relays of invaded systems the Reapers chance to know what we are planning and attack before we can do as planned. Yes, we will lose Earth, Thessia, Palavern and countless other systems, but we can save the others. A decision needs to be made, I suggest we vote on using the weapon and act soon, before the Reapers have a chance to stop us."

As the commander Spoke Picard only had one thought, if the Borg are not in a system with a Relay and these people fire this weapon, any hope in defeating the Borg before their Transmitter is complete would vanish with the Relays.

**/.../**

**/.../**

**Cold calculus of war eh? I'm curious, what would you guys do?**

**Cheers for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello again! The start of this chapter starts off light but don't worry the gears of war start to churn by the end. **

** Flameraven, I don't think the borg would risk the construction of their transmitter right now to go after some heavily defended technology when the assimilated vessels had no idea of what capabilities the crucible had. Sure they would be curious but would they risk it?**

** LordAnime, Cheers for the thoughts.**

** Quelthias, I think you might like the end of this chapter! I also plan to do some more from the Reapers / Borgs point of view in the next few chapters as this story comes to a close. Cheers for the thoughts as well!**

**/.../**

**Last time on TUKM**

**Shepard uncovered the Prothean VI and the nature of the Catalyst - that being the Citadel, but he also discovered firing the superweapon would destroy every relay, with it being unknown if the relays would take their host system with them, and if the Reapers themselves would actually be killed. After calling a council meeting he suggested the various leaders of the galaxy to vote on using the weapon.**

**/.../**

**During a 2 hour break before voting on the super weapons use.**

Shepard rubbed his hands together in glee, it had been too long since he had proper fish and chips and just watching the chef pull the fish out of the deep fry had the man positively duelling. "Salt?"

"And vinegar." Replied the Spectre.

Garrus flared his mandibles and adjusted his nose plates as he attempted to block his nose from the scent of the acidic liquid. "How you can eat that I will never know."

Shepard took his food and found a near by bench. "Because I'm not Dextro intolerant? Dam it, forgot the fork!"

By the time Shepard returned with some wooden forks Tali and Liara had joined Garrus at the table with food for themselves and Garrus. "I'm telling you, it's horrid! Your lucky to have a mask to filter out the smell right now."

"It really can't be that bad?" Tali looked to Liara and the Asari give a nod. "Really?"

Shepard rolled his eyes as he rejoined the table. "Aww, come on, vinegar doesn't smell that bad, sure it's potent but..."

Garrus shook his head and Liara replied. "Shepard, I've just seen a Hanar run, something I've never seen in my 110 years, so if that doesn't give you an indicator of how bad it smells I don't know what will."

Shepard chuckled at the thought of seeing a Hanar run, no matter how he imagined it he found it hilarious. "Okay okay, it's probably not the best smelling food in the galaxy."

Just after he finished speaking an unknown voice caught his attention. "Excuse me, are they real Fish and Chips and not replicated?" Shepard turned to see one or two of the enterprise crew.

"Err we don't have replicators."

The enterprise crew looked chuffed. "Fantastic, the E's replicators just never get it right, if you don't mind me asking where did you get it from?"

The spectre pointed them in the direction of the small shop he bought the food from, but before they left he had a question. "Just a quick question before you go, Vinegar or no vinegar?" When they responded and left Shepard turned back to his own friends. "See, 3 to 1 likes Vinegar, most definitely not as bad as you make it out."

"They are human, doesn't count."

Just as the small group were finishing their food the Captain of the Enterprise found them. "Commander Shepard."

The commander turned to face the ageing captain. "Captain Picard, what can I do for you?"

"I need to talk to you about the Borg." Picard had real concerns about the possibility this galaxy would use the crucible before finding and eliminating the Borg, and approached the Spectre hoping he could convince him to convince the others to hold the weapons deployment if the vote went in favour of using it.

With a sigh Shepard gestured to a free seat on the table they were sat at. "Take a seat then."

"I can come back when you are finished." The captain felt like he was unwelcome with thanks to Shepards sigh and spotting the food on the table.

The spectre shook his head. "No, sit and say what you have to, in this galaxy you might not have the chance later." Picard and Data took a seat on the bench before the Commander continued. "Now, what do we need to talk about?"

Picard looked among those on the table, he recognised the face's as Shepard's crew but he didn't know how much they knew about the Borg threat. "Can we speak here regarding the Borg and crucible or not?"

Shepard shrugged, there was probably some council order that demanded the denial of the Borg's existence, just like there had been for the Reapers, but Shepard didn't care. "I'm a spectre, I can do as I please."

"Very well, then I beg you to try and convince the council to vanquish the Borg prior to firing this crucible."

If Shepard was honest with himself he didn't know what to do, if he led the galaxy into a conflict with the Borg it is likely the fleets would be decimated and the war with the Reapers would take a turn for the worse, even with the crucible firing and providing the colony worlds a few extra years before reaper invasion the fleets would never be rebuilt back to the numbers currently amassed. Yes, some technology may be unearthed or developed that could provide the killing blow, but what is the probability that such a technology could be developed? Maybe if the technology of the Enterprise was made available to all, but then the likely hood of the Reapers discovering that technology and developing defences or even adapting it for their own use was likely.

/.../

**Meanwhile - Illusive mans star base**

TIM dabbed his expensive Cuban cigar into his well used cigarette tray, his mind was deep in thought, a sleeper agent on the Citadel had discovered a heavily protected and incredibly advanced vessel known as Enterprise nearly a week back now, and one of his cargo vessel's had recently encountered another vessel that identified itself as Borg before destroying said vessel, and it's precious load of rare earth metals. "Intelligence, what do we know of this Borg?"

A crimson red computer orb much like EDI's formed to answer the leader of the Terrorist group. "The Borg are an unknown identity, their presence has not been accounted for."

The man thought some more and once more dabbed his increasingly used cigar. "Are they a threat?"

The computer replied again, it's voice was scarily similar to harbingers, not that the man would know never actually having the chance to speak to the devil. "The intercepted data packet transmitted to SR-2 Normandy indicates the Borg threat is to be eliminated immediately."

The man pulled a hand down his stubble. "Then transmit the data-packet to the Reapers."

"Transmission complete." Little did the illusive man know the Reapers already had the data packet, the AI was after all discretely and directly controlled by Harbinger its self.

"Excellent, also order all scouts not already assigned a Annex 2 or greater assignment to find the Borg, I want to know where they are and what they are capable of."

There was a slight pause before the orb give it's response. "I have ordered 113 new assignments and re-assigned 74 additional scouts to the required task, also Jack, what of the Catalyst?"

The man scowled before stubbing out his depleted cigar. "Losing that Prothean VI was a major set-back, but I have other plans in motion."

"Care to expand?"

The man stood before approaching his office's large window that looked out towards the White Gaint his starstation was orbiting. "Before we were forced from the Citadel I covertly ordered a team to sabotage the atmospheric units, and I still have control. At 0330 hours tonight I am going to order the pumps to fill the atmosphere with lethal levels of carbon dioxide, when the increasing CO2 levels are discovered responding engineers will find that under the increased strain of all the refugees the units have failed and are beyond quick repair, then in the desperate effort to evacuate the Citadel ships protecting the crucible will be diverted, this is when the third, fifth and seventh fleet will emerge from the relay and steal the Crucible by force."

"And what is to stop the engineers from shutting down the atmospheric units before the carbon-dioxide levels become lethal?"

TIM smiled. "I thought you would never ask, the team that sabotaged the units also inserted a virus, shutting down the units will cause the atmosphere to be vented, they will have no choice but to evacuate." Harbinger was impressed, it knew the man could bring some unpredictable plans to the table that neither it nor any of its other brethren were capable of but it had not expected something such as that, and it was for this very fact that the Reaper allowed the man to remain in control of Cerberus, as unpredictable and random plans were hard to defend against.

/.../

_'Indoctrinated unit 42108 priority Alpha has issued high level commands to Cerberus body, task, locate species Borg. Taskforce A4-9, C1-7, F2, M4,8 re-locate to sector 113B co-ordinates 42673280.03665391.00000361, initiate level 3 sterilisation upon arrival then await further instruction.' _Within 100ms of the command nearly 175 reapers from large Capital ships to small but lethal destroyers abandoned whatever previous task they were engaged with. _'Taskforce A1-3 B1-5, D8-11 _re-locate to sector 002E, _await further instructions to_ _assist Cerberus Assault at sector 000A.'_

_ /.../_

**_So, I believe I am venturing further and further from the ME universe with the Cerberus Reaper relationship, and guys, this story is nearing it's end, I don't know how many chapters is left but its probably around 5, with the next few chaps being a bit longer than the recent one and focussed more on the Reaper - Borg war. Also, should the Enterprise find a way back home or do you want me to stay on the brutal path?_**

**_Oh, and vinegar or no vinegar? haha._**

**_Cheers for reading!_**


	12. Chapter 12

** Flameraven. Okay, I thought about it some more, watched a few trek episodes with the Borg and yes, the Borg would be intrigued by the Superweapon enough to risk it, so I'm making a few small changes to how (Or more importantly where) this will conclude. And To be honest, I think it's better than the original ending I've drafted. Anyway, enjoy!**

**/.../**

**Last time on TUKM**

_The galaxy had to decide, use the superweapon and possibly destroy numerous systems in the resulting blast, or hold on it's deployment, as they thought over its use Shepard and crew relaxed, and Cerberus prepared a fleet to take the weapon by force. With Cerberus also having received the data-packet transmitted to EDI from 'Peace Keeper' 0073, and TIM using an artificial intelligence that is Harbinger in disguise, the Reapers have ultimately received the data packet._

**Time 2200**

It had taken a lot longer to vote on the weapons use than what was expected, as many had asked for more time in making such a critical decision the council granted an extension by 6 hours, meaning that by 2200 the vote had been counted and Tevos was about to make an announcement but first she had to try and get her voice heard over the rabble in the Councillor Chambers. After numerous failed attempts to gain order Wrex took it upon him self to establish the required attention. "Silence!" Wrex added a shot of his claymor for added effect.

Tevos thanked the Krogan before addressing the crowd. "Having counted the votes, the weapon is not to be deployed..." There was another wave of commotion but a growl from wrex soon silenced the crowd one more. "As I was saying, the weapon will not be deployed, this is not however saying we will never use the weapon."

The Salarian councillor took over. "Shall the weapon ever be endangered by enemy forces, we have given permission for it's use."

"And should the council fall, Admiral Hackett of the alliance Navy is directly ordered to fire the weapon, as we fear the governmental structure required to contemplate its use will no longer exist and have the capability to order it's deployment."

After the Turian Primarch spoke Tevos continued. "And shall 3 or more ambassadors or councillors demand a re-vote we shall organise a ballot for 8 hours after the request. This meeting is adjourned."

Many left the chambers enraged that others couldn't see the tactical requirement for the weapon to be fired right this second, and even more left feeling relieved that the weapon was not yet deployed, Picard and his team were a few of those relived, but now he expected he would have to start seriously helping out in the war.

**1 hour later, Armax Arsenal Arena **

Worf growled as he stood from slamming a Reaper Cannibal into the floor and finishing it off but the next thing he knew he had a Husk taking a swipe at his face, after a dodge the Klingon ended the Husk with a shot from his phaser. "Worf!" The large humanoid turned to face one of his security officers who was being cornered by a giant... monster. The beast took more than its fair share of shots before falling. "Thanks." The security officer was out of breath, he had been dancing with that thing for far too long.

"We need to work as a group, this is getting us no..." Warf ended another Husk which just jumped them from a height. "where."

A few others managed to work their way over to the duo before another cry for help was heard, this time it was the Captain. "Worf, were being flanked, right side."

Without thinking the group began to run towards the right flank to meet the Reaper forces head on, but a blood curdling cry was heard. "Banshee!" The next thing Worf saw was one of his officers fly through the air and hit into the arena's padded walls, a klaxon sounded indicating the man was out of the game.

It was a Banshee that fractured Worf's skull and even though the enemy in this arena were simulated the man wanted revenge, but before he could think much of it the Banshee had jumped into the middle of the group, it took down three of the men with ease and caused a nasty scratch across the Klingons chest before he managed to create some distance between it and himself, but then another blood curdling scream caught his attention as another banshee had found him and was preparing to jump. One he may have been able to tackle but 2? Out of the question. Sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him he joined up with Picard and team, they were supporting a wide array of injuries. "My team is down, we have two Banshees."

In the time it took for Picard to turn a Brute had managed to force it's way through his own teams defensive line and removed a few of his men from the tournament, very quickly it became just Worf and the Captain, and then just Worf, and finally the entire team were eliminated. Looking at the scoreboard the team felt defeated, they hadn't even made it into the top 200 teams. "Data, do you believe you could replicate the Reaper forces seen here on the holodeck?"

The AI bobbed it's head. "I believe I have witnessed enough to form algorithms to correctly represent the Reaper forces."

"Excellent, because if this has shown us anything today it's that we are out of our depth in close quarter combat." Scrolling through the scoreboard Worf scowled, that human Shepard was ontop next to someone called Aria. "Worf, tomorrow I want you to find someone to show us any tricks they may know, and see if you can make these weapons more useful. As for me, I'm going to stay here and see what I can learn through observation, as for everyone else, you are dismissed."

After being dismissed Worf joined the Captain as he found a seat to watch a new group led by someone called Jack enter the arena, he too thought that watching would be a good way to improve. "Captain, I have been thinking about what technology could help this galaxy win their war."

Picard nodded as he replied but kept his eyes focussed entirely on the battle ground down below, right now the foe's were just husks. "I'm listening."

Worf was about to voice his thoughts but something caught his eye, one of those in the arena were glowing bright blue much like how the commander reacted when transported onto the E's bridge and the Banshee's that had just eliminated them from the game. "That blue light..." Soon a large biotic explosion took out numerous husks. Picard pulled out a tricorder and pointed it towards where the explosion occurred, it's readings were gibberish at best, just like the readings of the bridge when the Banshee's invaded, Geordie had thought the sensors were acting up but looking at his tricorder Worf assumed there was more to it then that.

The two friends stopped their conversation as they watched more and more of the show, these people battled like he had never seen before, instead of the battle being gun centric it was biotic centric, things were blowing up in wonderful explosions of blue and white, husks and cannibals were flung through the air from biotic pushes, shockwaves were dislodging enemies entrenched behind obstacles, people were jumping around the battlefield in biotic shows of force, others were shaking the ground with fists of blue fire or inflicting some type of warp on the Reaper forces. Eventually the team had finished their round and came 22nd on the rankings, the leader seemed displeased by this ranking and demanded another go, but of course there was another group already filing into the arena. "Well, in all my years I have never seen anything like that before." Worf grunted in acknowledgement. "Now, you were saying?"

"Self Replicating mines." The self replicating mines were developed to protect the Bajoran worm-hole at deep space nine from Dominon forces, they incorporated incredibly advanced technology that was easily turning the tide of the war against the Dominon, hopefully if Picard give the go-ahead the same could be said for this galaxy and their Reaper pests.

Picard liked the idea of the self replicating mines, they were easy enough to produce and could be devastating to any ship in its proximity, however could he give this galaxy such technology? Thinking it over some more the Captain nodded, these people were fighting a war for the right to exist, if his own vessel was the one to plant the mines and produce them then minimal collateral harm should come from the weapons, although heavy safe guard would have to be incorporated, Picard could not have the people of this galaxy attempting to steal a mine and plunder it's advanced tech.

_**Time, 0048**_

The reapers prepared themselves for the battle that laid ahead, small 'Care Workers' much like the keepers on the citadel patched up any damage or wear they had sustained this cycle, meaning every Reaper in the task force designated for upcoming battle with the Borg entity was ready to do their bit, and the Reapers that were unscathed and not needing attention bizzied themselves with sterilising the space they occupied.

With thanks to peace keeper 0073 Harbinger had managed to prepare if ever so slightly for the encounter, the Data Packet it broadcast to the hostile AI contained more information than it could hope for, specifications of the Borg vessels, analysis of their attack and defence techniques, and most importantly, all data regarding what their weapons and shields are capable of with thanks to the first hand experience, the only thing it seemed to lack was information on where to find the Borg, but that was no longer an issue a Cerberus scout had just reported into TIM.

_'Taskforce, numerous Borg units identified by Cerberus scouts, move to sector 002E, await further instructions'_

Within seconds of Harbingers instructions the 175 ship armada designated for the upcoming battle began to file towards the nearest relay, as they travelled they came across a small cargo vessel hidden behind a Gas Giant, it was quickly dispatched.

/.../

**Time, 0329, **

TIM dabbed his cigar in a well practised move, today was going to be a day for the history books, today Humanity will ascend to their rightful place in this galaxy, all he had to do to achieve such ascension was give one small order, but he had one more minute to wait, if he give the order too early it would corrupt his entire plan. Eventually the clocked ticked to 03:30. "Intelligence, activate stage 1, code name Asphyxiation."

The red orb formed. "Stage 1 initiated, Citadel Atmospheric units have been compromised."

"Excellent." Tim took a puff of his cigar and a swag of some expensive 1932 Highlander Whiskey he had been saving for such a grande occasion. "Now we play the waiting game. Any news of the Borg and their end destination?"

TIM's scouts had identified the Borg a few hours back and recently all 7 of their vessels had abandoned a massive construct they had been working on to travel the relays. "There is no new status to report."

"Pity." TIM took another swag of his whiskey. "Send the scout for a closer look on that structure, instruct them to... assess it's progress and act as required."

"Command delivered."

"Excellent."

**Time 0517, CO2 levels at 2.3% (15% is lethal, 2-3% its effects are noticeable in extraneous exercise, normal Earth atmosphere composure = ~0.04% CO2, 21% O2 and 78% Nitrogen, other gasses ~0.96% )**

It was a Hanar working the mid night oil to first raise the alarm about finding it hard to breath, and soon after CSEC was in panic mode, engineers had warned that the increased load of all the refugees were have a detrimental effect on the Citadel's systems and it appeared they were right, the primary atmospheric units had catasrophically failed. Bailey having been notified of an 'urgent matter' not ten minutes ago walked through the door to head quarters, his hair was sticking up and his uniform a mess from his rush to HQ. "Would someone please like to tell me what is going on?" His secretary pushed a data pad and a hot mug of tea into his hand, Bailey looked it over as he walked towards his office. "This is... bad news. I assume we have engineers on this as we speak?"

"Yes Sir." The secretary juggled numerous data-pads before handing him another and taking back the first. "Well, this is... even worse news." It appeared to fix the atmospheric units the Engineers believed they would have to shut down the machines, and that would cause the entire atmosphere to be vented, Bailey shook his head disbelievingly, who's stupid idea was it for the atmosphere to be vented if the units were shut down? "Is it me Fales or does something not feel right about this? I can almost taste Cerberus."

The Asari nodded, she too had her suspicions. "It would not surprise me Sir."

Bailey nodded. "Well, they have burned us once, I say no more. I want all personnel on duty now, I don't care if they are on vacation, supporting broken limbs or what not..." As he spoke Fales made notes. "...issue a command for the Councillor vessels to leave harbour, and double the Councillors guards." Since the last Cerberus assault it had been agreed that the councillors would live permanently on their own species most powerful vessels, those being the Destiny Ascension, the SurKesh - a Salarian heavy Dreadnought, and the adeptly named 'Gunn', the Turians most powerful ship. Had the humans still had a representative their councillor would have been housed on the now destroyed Tokyo Dreadnought.

By the time Bailey had arrived at his office and logged into his terminal the councillors were already in meeting. "... We need to sound the alarm now and begin evacuations now before we have deaths on our hands, our scientists estimate it will only be 2 hours 20 minutes before the levels begin to become lethal."

The Turian give a classic Turian growl. "If Cerberus are behind this that is exactly what they would want us to do."

The Salarian dalatrass sighed, she could see and agree with both sides of the arguments. "Have scouts reported anything which could suggest they or the Reapers are planning an attack?"

"A private cargo vessel encountered 175 Reaper vessels at ten to one in the Epsilon Cluster." Trust the Turian Primarch to know that with out needing to look, he was a General at heart and read tactical reports on the war periodically, his last check was less than 12 minutes before he was alerted to the situation.

Hackett's image formed to join the conversation, right now he was humanity's stand in representative. "Then we do anything but evacuate, with that many ships they intend on taking a system and evacuating will require sparing military vessels, leaving us exposed. Order safe zones with portable atmospheric cleansers to be established, till we know what that fleet is planning on hitting we are to do nothing."

The Turian nodded and flared his mandibles in agreements. "With the Super Weapon now complete it is... safe to assume the Reapers are planning on taking this system."

Tevos pulled a hand to her forehead and rubbed in an attempt to soothe the forming head ache. "With what you are suggesting millions could die."

"The ruthless calculus of war." Hackett spoke before the Turian could, his response earned a nod of respect from the Turian. "If we lose the super weapon we lose everything, a few million won't matter."

There was a pause before the Salarian spoke. "I... I concur. I am also ordering vessels to help defend the Crucible as we speak."

Eventually Tevos nodded too. "I am also ordering the Ascension to help protect the weapon, I will board the Lur'Naviok."

Soon each councillor pledged more ships to the weapons protection, with only Hackett not giving any more as right now as there was very little he could give, the Alliance was already the super-weapons primary shield and spear, they had already given as much as they could, hell, Hackett had already allowed numerous system's to fall in order to ensure he had enough ships protecting the weapon.

"One last thing Councillors, I believe it could be a good idea to connect the weapon to the catalyst now."

/.../

**Time 0704 Geth Vessel 6443**

Shepard's knees were bouncing once more as the commander stared at the battle screen the Geth still had set-up for his use. "Shepard Commander, we have discovered a fleet of 7 vessels approaching."

The commander of the Normandy had once more taken his role on the Geth vessel, the Normandy still not being ready to engage Cerberus if they ever showed their face. "Borg." Over the last few hours hundreds of civilian ships had arrived to help evacuations of the Citadel, so Shepard knew if the Geth mentioned this fleet it was bad news.

"Affirmative."

The man sighed. "Alert the fleets."

**Borg **

The Borg had discovered logs, emails, and documents regarding the super weapon and the consensus agreed that the weapon needed assimilation, however there was a small issue, the weapon was in heavily guarded territory, long range scans indicated over 400 military and an additional 3700 non military vessels had amassed at its position, including the Enterprise.

The solution to this small problem was obvious to the Borg, they simply needed to adapt, shields were fine tuned for kinetic weapons, their own weapons nature was changed to inflict inconceivable damage to this galaxy's vessels, but they also made another unexpected change, a change of tactics, usual Borg philosophy on warfare stated that ultimate force conquered, and while this still held true the consensus ultimately agreed that simply going in gun's ho would not work, they would be subcomed by the amount of vessels firing at them in little to no time, so to over come this problem the Borg did what they did best, they adapted.

**Time 0728**

The Captain was understandably ratty, he had little sleep and right now the Borg had decided to show their ugly face. "Someone shut off that damned alarm!" It didn't take long for the audible siren of red alert to fall silent. "Geordie, have you forwarded the recommended shield and weapon modifications to the fleets?" After repairing most of the damage the Enterprise took during the Reaper attack Picard had the engineer study the weapons and sheilds of this galaxies vessels with the hope that Geordie could find some way to make them more effective against the Borg.

The Engineer was silent for a moment as he worked on something requiring intense concentration. "I didn't quite finish the shield modifications but they will work for a short time till they adapt, and with how this galaxies weapons operate there is very little they can do to modify them."

"A short time is better than nothing. Data, how long till the Borg emerge from the relay?"

"12 minutes."

/.../

**Cheers for reading. **


	13. Chapter 13

**_Okay, long ,long long! time no update, and I'm sorry about that, I hit a writers block on how to finish this, I rewrote chapters more times then I can count and then I lost some chapters I had written due to a dodgey PSU blowing up my PC, and that caused me to lose all motivation to do this. _**

**_Anyway, better late than never in my opinion, so if any of you are still wanting to read this, here ya go!_**

**_(Oh, also thank Zhugzug for giving me the kick in the behind that was required for me to release this)_**

_Last time on TUKM_

_With thanks to a Cerberus computer virus the Citadel's atmoshperic units have been compromised, meaning CO2 levels are building to lethal levels, meanwhile the Council fear an attack on their precious superweapon meaning they have reluctantly refused to help evacuations of the citadel, preferring to send vessels to protect the weapon. At the same time the Reapers have ammassed an armarda to eliminate the Borg, who are currently travelling to Citadel space in a bid to assimilate the Superweapon._

Tevos nervously brought a hand up to her jaw, seven Borg vessels, of which six looked like mutilated Reaper vessels, had emerged from the relay and were sat stationary in space, seemingly waiting for something. "Have we made contact yet?" She asked no one in particular.

The comms officer of the Lur'Naviok shook her head and looked up from her console to the Councillor. "Matriarch Lidanya is currently attempting to establish a comms link." The councillor did not like this, with the reapers she knew what their end goal was and had a pretty good understanding of what they were capable of, but this borg collective? She knew very little, yes this Captain Picard had made it clear they were just as dangerous if not more so than the Reapers, but she had yet to see the Borg invade an entire system, destroy fleets, or unleash monsters on her people. "Link has been established!"

Tevos listened to the link, nothing but eeire silence, she wanted to ask if there was a problem but just as she was about to speak the Borg spoke. "We are the Borg. You are in possession of weapon 6ZF431, surrender the weapon and no harm will come to you."

Picard frowned, he had never head of the borg offering mercy, so why now?

Matriarch Lidanya, currently the captain of the Destiny Ascension, replied. "This is Matriarch Lidanya of Asari High Command, you are currently..."

While the borg could be patient, they were not willing to be so today. "We will not negotiate. You have two galactic minutes."

Lidanya knew that the Council would not willingly hand over the weapon. "We will not bargin for..." The comm line was cut and the Borg vessels split up and begun to circle the weapon and her defending fleets at dizzying speeds.

Lidanya shook her head and established contact with the Enterprise. "Captain Picard, any last suggestions?"

The captains voice came through loud and clear. "Fight hard, your lives depend on it, and remember, when a Borg ship is about to be destroyed they will transport onto unshielded vessels."

"Noted." Lidyana then opened a comm to all vessels. "You are to defend the Superweapon at all costs. I wish you all the best, groups 1-4..." Lidyana started to issue orders to the fleets, but as she did so a warning light light up and a claxon went off.

Tevos looked to the captain of the vessels she was on. "What is that?"

The captain looked to her intelligence officer. "Buoys have discovered a large disturbance in the Relay's... more than two hundred and fifty ships are approaching this sector."

The Asari councillor gulped and spoke the word all were thinking. "Reapers." The captain signed and shook her head, she had been briefed on the Borg and knew they were going to lose alot of men just fighting them off, to then have to fight off Reapers too? She shuddered at the thought, today was going to be bloody at best, or the day the war was lost at worst, and deep down she feared their situation was the latter of the two possibilities. "Get me the Councillors." Tevos demanded

One by one each of the councillors accepted her hail, with Hackett being the last one. "I am assuming you each know why I have hailed you?"

Hackett nodded but his eyes were off screen, probably watching to see what the Borg are doing, which was currently not much other than circling the weapon at increasing speeds. "Let me guess, the large fleet heading our way?"

The Turian Primark spoke after Hackett. "This is not good. When we defeat the Borg the Reapers will have easy pickings."

"We can not hope to fight both." Agreed the Salarian representative. "The weapon needs..."

"Just do it." Hackett cut in, his face was now filled with concern signifying something was happening, Tevos looked to the war screen and sure enough the Borg were engaging.

/.../

The Borg's tactic was to fly so fast that the conventional kenetic based weaponry of the locals could not catch them, and fly so erratically that it was nearly impossibly to predict their flight path, the only time they would expose them selves was when a ship tried to fly by the super weapon and lower it's shields, and as they didn't want to risk damaging a super weapon they had very little knowledge of, they couldn't just use their most powerful weapons against it's shields, multiple passes would be required.

Lidyana however quickly realised what the Borg's tactic was. "Groups 3,7,9,11,17, huddle the weapon and make sure they don't have a clear shot, the rest of you keep at it."

Shepard shook his head and scowled to himself, if they could not predict the Borg's movements this battle was going to be short lived, fortunately however the Geth and their brilliant collective mind power seemed to find some flaw in the Borg battle plan. "Shepard Commander, we believe we can predict the Borg's movement with 43.21% accuracy."

43% accuracy may not be fantastic, but it was better than what ever single digit unit it was currently. "Show me." A Geth unit started placing blue boxes on the battle screen where they believed the Bog ships would be at a given time and sure enough 4 out of ten times the Borg were where the Geth guessed they would be. "I could kiss you. Get this to the fleets."

With permission from Lidyana the fleet begun to use the Geth algorithm and the Borg started to take hits, but Picard wasn't happy, while the E's phasers traversed space with a high enough velocity that the Borg's speed wasn't an issue, he needed the locals weapons to be hitting their mark for the battle to be won . "Data, any progress on the algorithm?"

Since getting the Geth algorithm Data had been working with the Computer to see if they could increase its accuracy using knowledge of past battles. "We have managed to increase accuracy by 7%"

Picard would take 7% "Give it to the fleet." With in seconds the rest of the fleet had the updated algorithm and half their shots were hitting the Borg, but little damage was happening.

EDI meanwhile was also working on her own algorithim, assessing the Borg's movements and weapon fire to see if she could estimate where they would try to attack next. "Shepard, I have detected a pattern in the Borg's attack."

The commander had to regain his footing after a particularly heavy attack hit the Geth dreadnought he was a passenger on. "Upload it!"

The battle raged another 3 minutes before the Geth had a break through, using EDI's algorithim they were able to increase the efficiency of Data's algorithm to almost 70% and through attrition one of Reaper Borg's started to show some cracks in their armour, only the Enterprises advanced sensors could detect it however. "Captain, the third Reaper Borg has a weak spot near the 3rd leg."

Picard turned to Worf. "Hit it with a volley. And tell the fleet." With concentrated fire from every available ship the Reaper Borg vessel eventually showed signs of trouble. "Matriarch Lidyana." Picard called the Asari Matriarch. "Alert the fleet to be vigilant of stow aways."

The Matriarch only nodded before the feed was cut, and shortly after the first Reaper Borg was destroyed. "Scan for stowaways." Ordered Picard.

The scan took next to no time to finish. "Only 3 vessels test positive for Borg."

"Could be worse." Sighed Picard, he had feared much higher figures. "Notify Lidyana of the infected ships."

"Already... Captain the Citadel is..." Picard turned to look at the crewman.

"Is what?"

The crewman looked at his sensor readings one more time. "Opening, and the superweapon has begun to move."

Picard was forced to endure a Borg hit before he could reply. "They are using the weapon! Data, any more advances with the algorithim?"

"I'm sorry captain." Replied the android. "But I have not."

"Dam..."

"Captain, the Borg." In the time Picard had been facing Data the Borg had shifted tactics. "They aren't attacking the weapon."

Picard frowned before a realisation hit him. "The citadel is mostly undefended as the council don't believe it's defences will fail. The Borg are going to try and stop the weapon from being deployed."

"How do they know that it needs to be docked with the citadel?" Asked a crewman.

Picard leaned forward and rubbed his stubble. "It doesn't matter right now. How is the citadels shields holding?" The grim look of the crewman was all Picard needed to know.

Meanwhile Shepard cursed as he realised the Borg's new tactic. "Geth, you need to get me on the citadel before it's shields fail." While the fleet could huddle the super weapon to stop any hits from hitting home, the Citadel was simply too big to do the same.

The geth unit which demonstrated the algorithm turned to him. "Shepard Commander, follow me."

As Shepard followed the unit he raised a hand to his ear and spoke in his teams comm link. "Liara, Tali, Wrex, Vega, come to my position asap, and bring your breathing units." He then turned to some Geth prime units which were following him. "And you two. Your with me too." He didn't know if he could order the Geth about but the two units seemed to follow his order and fall into rank.

The Geth led the Commander to a shuttle craft where his team was already waiting with thanks to the Geth telling them to head directly to the shuttle bay instead of finding their commanding officer. "What's up?" Asked James as soon as he laid eyes on the Spectre.

"The Borg are attacking the citadel, and when it's shields fail I've got a awful feeling like we are going to be the last line of defence."

Wrex pumped his shotgun and stated. "I've been waiting for round 2, get payback for what they did to the welp."

"Good to hear." Replied Shepard before boarding a shuttle craft destined for the Citadel.

/.../

Meanwhile TIM threw his empty glass across the room, the Borg had thrown a wrench in his master plan and he had to send his fleets in early to try and prevent the weapon from being used.

"Someone, my cigar is out." He called to seemingly no-one but shortly after speaking a Nemisis appeared from the shadows and handed him another cigar. When the cigar was lit he took a deep drag before leaning back in his chair and thinking furiously, after a while it seemed like a light bulb had been powered up inside his brain, maybe the situation wasn't as bad as it seemed. "Intelligence. How long till my fleet arrives?"

"ETA 2 minutes 14 seconds."

"And the Reaper fleet?"

"Five minutes, 31 seconds."

Tim brought a hand to his chin. "Maybe... just maybe..." He spoke to himself before speaking to his AI again. "AI, how long would it take a ship from this sector to arrive at the citadel?"

"Seven minutes 59 seconds."

The man chuckled a bit before leaping out of his chair. "AI, prepare a ship to dispatch immediately."

"Destination?"

"Why, the citadel of course." He replied as he pulled his jacket on and left his office.

/.../

**Cheers for reading!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry for the slow updates!**

**Last time on TUKM**

**_The Borg have engaged the fleets protecting the Superweapon and the council have taken the decision to fire the weapon, however the Borg have realised their plan to use the weapon and have begun to attack to citadel to stop the weapon from being fired, forcing Shepard to land on the Citadel and defend the Control room till the weapon can fire._**

**_Meanwhile both Cerberus and Reaper Vessels are just minutes away from emerging through the Relay and joining the battle._**

/.../

Shepard peaked around a corner and looked at the four or so Borg drones that were currently trying to lower the shields that were protecting a C-SEC outpost the team would need to pass through to get to the Citadel Control room, with no other drones in sight he moved from his cover and pumped his shotgun, while not his favourite weapon it was without a doubt the best up close and personal weapon he could use against the borg, because if it didn't break through their shields, with the mass effect generator attached to the barrel it would certainly cause the average Borg drone to stumble backwards a step or two.

The next to round the Corner was Wrex with James hot on his heels, then came Tali and Liara, both of which were looking at the Borg drones with caution.

The first to open fire on the Borg was Wrex with his shotgun, the powerful weapon decapitating the unfortunate Borg drone it was aimed at and when the Krogan realised what damage his weapon did he released a frankly maniac laugh that came from deep within the gut.

"I thought Captain Picard said their shields would have adapted to our weapons?" Asked Liara as Shepard pushed a Borg drone off a nearby ledge with a biotic push, dropping it a few hundred feet to its death.

"They have." Came the voice of Vega, he was unleashing his shotgun into a Drone's face from close up, nothing much was happening but the occasional blue spark. "Heh, you just need a bigger gun." Scoffed Wrex before he ran over like the excited Krogan he was and fired his own shotgun in the drones face, while it certainly sent the drone backwards a few steps it did not lower it's shields. "Huh, let's try again." Eventually with the combined fire power of both Wrex and Vega's shotgun the drone's shields fell, leaving just one drone left.

"This one's mine." Informed Liara as she picked up the drone with a powerful show of biotics and slammed it into the ground with bone crunching force.

"So it was." Replied Shepard before finding a nearby Avina terminal. "Avina, I need to get past this shield ASAP."

The holographic Asari assistant formed and buffered for a few moments before saying. "Spectre status recognised, shields have been momentarily lowered." When the shields were lowered the Commanders small group charged in through C-SEC's front door, allowing the shields to reform as soon as possible, but getting inside they had to swallow more than once at the sight that greeted them.

"By the Godess." Eventually came Liara's voice as they continued to look around the room where fifty or so people were lying on the floor or slumped in their chairs dead, but not from battle. "They must have been asphyxiated from the carbon in the atmosphere." Tali pulled up her omni-tool and took a quick scan, a nod of her head confirmed Liara's hypothesis.

"The Brutal Calculus of war." Sighed Shepard before strapping his shotgun to his back and picking up a few spare heat sinks. "I've got a feeling these are going to be scarce so pick up as much as you can carry." He informed his group as he moved over to another dead body to scavenge what he could.

The small party had just about restocked when EDI hailed them. "Commander, do you read?"

"Listening." Informed Shepard as he give a hand signal to move out.

The AI's response was immediate. "Cerberus has now joined the battle, they appear to be engaging both Alliance and Borg vessels. Also, you have incoming Cerberus forces."

The Commander rolled his eyes. "Why doesn't that surprise me EDI?"

"Cerberus has appeared in 73.21% of our recent..."

The Spectre cut the trusty AI off. "EDI, that was a rhetoric Question... or was it Sarcasm? What ever it was it didn't need a statistical report."

There was a small pause as the AI thought about what the Commander said. "I see."

"Hmm. Anyway, update on the battle."

"2 Borg Vessels have been destroyed, and we have lost 103 ships."

The commander give a sad sigh as he rounded a corner and came across another room full of dead people, it seemed like today was going to be the bloodies of the entire war and half the deaths were probably going to be caused by the council refusing to evacuate the citadel. "Understood. Let me know if anything changes."

"Will do Commander."

Hitting a button on his omni-tool Shepard turned the Comm link off and then signalled to his party to take up defensive positions as he prepared to open a door that would reveal the hidden tunnels that Engineering crews used to access the Citadels critical systems. "3...2.." He signalled '1' with his finger and then slammed the button to open the door, Wrex having the strongest shields and armour charged through the door first like a raging bull but nothing was hidden behind the door, so his efforts were for nothing. After running though the corridor for a few minutes EDI called again, but the communication channel was filled with static. "Commander...hear...Cerberus..."

Stopping in a sheltered location he rose a hand to press his helmet so that the speaker inside was pressed further up against his left ear. "EDI, your breaking up."

"Com...mander...Cer...forces..."

Shepard scowled, either Cerberus were blocking communications, which he would bet on, or these tunnels were interfering with the communication channels. With a shrug he continued down the corridor till he came to the access point he needed to exit at. With everyone once more in defensive positions he tapped the button for the door to open, but the metal door opened an inch before grinding to a halt after becoming jammed on something.

"Fantastic." grumbled the commander before he peaked through the crack to see what was behind. "Actually, probably for the better that it didn't open." He laughed before closing the door with his powered armour. "Lets go to the next door."

"What was there?" Asked Wrex as they begun a fast jog.

"Only about a hundred or so Cerberus troops."

The reply Shepard got was just a grunt from Wrex and "Yes, I can see why we would avoid that fight." From Liara.

Getting to the next door the team once more took up defensive positions before the commander opened it, this time they were in luck, only a few Cerberus troops were around. After quickly dispatching them Shepard pulled up his omni-tool and studied the map, by not being able to take the first exit they were now ten minutes from the Citadel control, he could only hope that the Control room's defences could hold out till he got there.

/.../

Picard allowed himself to celebrate a small victory as a Reaper Borg vessel disintegrated, but they still had 4 Borg ships left, of which one of them was the Cube and it had barely sustained any damage, however the captains small celebration could only last so long. "Captain, the Relay."

"The Reapers?" He asked already knowing the answer deep down.

"Yes." With the View Screen turned to show the Relay Picard felt his stomach turn as hundreds of Reaper vessels varying from small destroyers to the Monstrous Harbinger class vessels emerged, the Captain swallowed, the Local forces had already lost a quarter of their forces just trying to kill the Borg, to now try and kill the Reapers at the same time as Cerberus and the Borg would be an impossible task, meaning unless the Superweapon fires Picard could see no victory today.

But the Alliance had a small glimmer of hope, the Reapers main goal was not to eliminate them, but the Borg, or at least the Reapers were going to focus all forces on eliminating the Borg first, then what ever was left in the aftermath was going to be set on the locals.

Hackett meanwhile brought a hand up to his jaw and rubbed, the weapon needed firing right this second. "Get me Citadel control room."

The line rung for a few minutes before the Admiral turned to his communication officer. "Pull up Control room security cameras."

It took the officer a few seconds but eventually the security cameras were placed on the view screen, and the image caused the Admiral to scowl and bark. "Get me Shepard."

There was a moment of silence and then the Commanders voice was heard, but half of what he was saying was cut off from static. "I'm kind of busy... Fuck that hurt you piece of... I'm going to cut off your bloody... and feed them to your..."

If the Admiral wasn't so worried and stressed he would have raised a brow at the odd outburst. "Shepard, can you hear me?"

There was a period of heavy breathing before he responded again. "Yeah... I'm here. What you need?"

"Control room has gone dark, you will need to fire the weapon."

"Understood. We're 7 minutes out"

"Make that 2 commander, we don't have 7 minutes."

Hackett could only describe the Commanders response as a growl before he heard. "Understood."

Shepard meanwhile peaked around a corner and up the next alley way he would have to pass, it was filled with Cerberus troops battling off swarms of Borg Drones, and at the end of the long corridor was the control room. "Two minutes my ass." He whispered before turning around to look at his squad. "We need to get to the far end of this corridor as soon as possible."

"Okay." Replied Wrex before starting to turn the corner, but when he witnessed all the enemy forces he quickly retreated behind the corner and barked. "This is why I love your missions Shepard."

"Why, what's wrong?" Asked Liara before taking her own peek. "Oh, I see."

Tali had a look too before sighing. "I'm really getting bored of these suicide missions Shepard."

/.../

**Sorry again for the delay.**


End file.
